True Love And a Child
by glitter2126
Summary: This was originally going to be a one shot, but it was getting to long so here's the story: One of the members of Akatsuki have a dark past and itinvolves a child... WARNING: Some language may come into play, in the story...youve been warned
1. Chapter 1

Ok this was originally going to be a one shot… But after the story exceeded 15 pages, and seeing as it's still really early in

**Ok this was originally going to be a one shot… But after the story exceeded 15 pages, and seeing as it's still really early in the story, I figured I should just start posting this up.**

**The first chap is introducing 2 of the main characters, so sorry if it doesn't make sense.**

**I do not own Naruto. **

**True Love & a Child**

It started with a child. A 4 year old girl to be exact. A 4 year old girl named karinai. And before that it began with two people: a young man and a young woman, who fell in love, but was torn apart by two different worlds. This is their story…

The 4 year old hurriedly ran along the village's old path to catch up to the group that was ahead of her. Her girl-guide uniform swishing around her body as she ran, with long black raven hair that reached around mid back tied in two pigtail braids blew in the wind.

"Hey guy's wait up!" She exclaimed as she continued running towards the dozens of other girls, her age that appeared to be wearing the same uniform. Also beside the children appeared to be there mothers'.

The group, at hearing the child's voice stopped and waited, though a few kept on walking because they had seemed to not of heard.

"Sorry, I'm late but I took the wrong path to get here." The child gasped as she finally stopped to meet the group.

"That's okay Karinai." Said a woman, stepping to where the child stood. The woman appeared to be in he mid 30's, with wispy brown hair tied up in a bun. "But where's your mother? Today is supposed to be a day where the mother's watch what we do at girl-guides." The woman said, squatting down to the child's height.

Confused, Karinai looked over her shoulder. "She was with me a moment ago." She said in a mousy tone. Some of the young girls looked around at each other and started giggling, but were quickly hushed up by the shushing of their mothers even though they, themselves, had a very amused look on their faces.

Just then a figure was seen hurrying down the path that the child had just passed moments before. Her red spaghetti strap sun dress clinging around her athletic frame as she jogged.

"THERE SHE IS!" Karinai said in delight, looking up at the older woman's face.

When the woman finally caught up with the group, the scene was awkward. No one spoke. The mothers looked the mother up and down as if picking out every detail of her, but everyone knew what she was the moment she came standing beside the 4 year old.

The woman had an athletic build that shaped her dress and made it look like a ball gown. She had blonde hair that reached her shoulders, it was held neatly back with a burette. Her eyes were light blue, like the child's. And her facial features matched the child's almost identically. The woman could have been an athlete, Olympic swimmer or even a ninja. But a mother, no. Maybe a sister or distant relative. But definitely not a mother. Instead of being in the late twenties like the rest of the mothers, this one appeared to look like she was 20. (Actually she was 21 but whose counting?)

She was a teen mother.

"Why does she look so young?" One young girl, with red frizzy hair, asked her mom. The mother looked at the child, giving her the look that only mothers can give, which translates into "I'll tell you later, so stop asking questions or else…"

Pretending not to have heard the comment, the young mother looked up from her child, outstretched a hand towards the eldest woman with brown hair and said: "Hi, my name's Leara, I'm Karinai's mother." She gave a sweet smile as the woman grasped her hand and returned the smile. "Sorry I'm late…" Leara continued. "But I got a little separated from my daughter at the last crossing."

"Yea right" coughed out one of the mothers, barely audible enough to hear. She smirked; sure that no-one had heard.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear that? Did you say something?" Leara asked turning to face the woman, who instantly lost her smirk. "I thought so." She said returning that smirk to the woman, who had just made the last remark.

"Anyway, let's get started…" said the woman with brown hair, clapping her hands together, in order to get every-one's attention. "My name is Merge. Today the kids will be selling cookies in the park, and you, the mothers, will get to watch." She continued, and brushed past Leara, in order to assemble the kids.

The woman, Merge, smelt like gingerbread, as she passed Leara. For some reason that smell always made her feel like she was 5 years old again, watching her mother bake in the kitchen while she ,herself, tried to be of some assistance to her mother. "Leara, darling, I know you want to help, but I really don't need any." Her mother used to say

"But I wants too." She would respond.

"I know you do my little angel of fire, and some day you will but not today." Her momma would say looking into her blue eyes. "Why don't you run along and play with your siblings." Momma would say after a few moments, ending the conversation.

Leara forced the rest of the memory out of her head. "_Why am I thinking about __**her**__, she's dead, In fact, my __**whole**__ family is dead." _She thought as she walked beside her child, who had un-noticeably grabbed her hand.

As she, and the other kids accompanied by their own mothers followed Merge, Leara felt the eyes of every single mother on her backside, looking her through, and analyzing her every move_. "Let them stare and watch my every move. You think you're the first? Ha! You people make me laugh!" _ She thought as she let out a smirk.

Karinai looked up at her mother to see her smiling. She to knew why all the mothers where staring, but she didn't care, she loved her mommy and that was all that counted. Knowing this she smiled to.

Merge finally stopped, and the group realized that they were in the middle of Konoha's park. Leara shivered a little, remembering the scene of the last time she was here. "Okay girls let's set up our selling station here. There are benches and places to sit over to the right where the mothers can sit." Merge said talking to the group. Something about her tone made Leara think again of her mother, but she quickly pushed the thought away. Quietly she let go of her daughter's hand. When Karinai gave a questioning look, the mother gave a reassuring smile, and kissed her child's forehead. She then walked away from her child to over where the mothers had sat. She looked at all the seats that were once empty but now full, she sighed as she saw a lone swing. She moved towards it and sat down, taking in her surroundings.

The park hadn't changed much from the last time she was here, everything had stayed the same, well, everything except that the last time she was there something had just happened, something terrible.

XXXXFLASHBACKXXXX

**The rain poured heavily on the young girl's back, causing her long blonde hair to get tangled in her eyes, but she didn't care, she didn't need to see she was taught to be able to find her way around with her other senses. She just kept on running. Her Konoha headband covered her eyes as it slipped from her forehead. She finally stopped and realized she was in the park. **

**She gasped for air, and let all her tears come out. What had she done? She looked around for a place to sit, spotted a swing and sat down. She was no longer crying, just gasping for air and letting the adrenaline run through her veins. She looked around and then at her hands, legs and arms. They were brushed and bashed, but over top of the bruises was blood. She forced herself to look away and took another deep breath. It was then that she felt his presence. She turned around with a kunai in her hand ready to attack, but saw nothing. **

"**Isn't it past your bed time?" A cool male voice said from behind. The teen girl stood silent. "Leara? What happened? Let's talk about it." The male voice said…**

Leara closed her eyes to forget the rest. She couldn't bear to remember that night, or any other night when she was with him. A few minutes later she reopened them, Looked around spotted her little girl, and smiled, at least her little girl could help her forget her memories. She then felt the eyes of the other mothers on her again. _"Don't you have anything better to do?_ She thought, not looking away from her daughter.

It was then the mothers started whispering. "Have you ever seen her before, cause, I sure haven't."

"I've seen her in the market a few times with her child."

"From what I hear she's only been hear for a few months, since September I think."

"_Well what do ya know they actually got some of there gossip right for once"_

"I know, but the way she knows the way around Konoha, you would think she lived here all her life."

"_Technically not in Konoha, but you're pretty close." _

"Who cares if she's lived here all her life can you believe that she has a child, I mean at this age?"

"_Here we go. I knew you people couldn't resist bringing up this subject."_

"I know, I mean I would have nothing against it if it was true love, but I mean do you at all see a wedding ring around her finger."

"Well, maybe she got divorced."

"_Well at least someone here is trying to defend me…Good for you!"_

"Are you kidding? Listen, sugar, I've seen these girls before, mind you they normally don't live here, but they are… skanks."

"_There we go, I now have my label in the town… Leara: the skank."_ At this Leara looked up, stood, looked strait at the mothers and said: "Actually I prefer the term whore, but hey what ever turns your crank."

The look on the other mothers was so priceless. They turned 3 shades white, mouths hanging open, eyes wide, and a pained expression which looked like they had just eaten a lemon. _"I could take you all out if I wanted, but what's the point. I would just bring attention to myself and I would be even more wanted then what I already am." _ She gave a sweet smile, sat back down on her swing, bushed back and started going back and forth. She closed her eyes and smiled, in all her glory.

Meanwhile, Karinai was in her glory to. She had sold 10 boxes of cookies, and it had only been 20 minutes. It wasn't until a group of girls came close to her and started talking, that her day began to turn rotten.

"So what do you think of the mothers?" A girl with bleach blonde hair that was tied in ponytails asked her friend that stood beside her.

"There all pretty cool, except for that one wearing the red dress." Her friend said in response.

Karinai knew immediately where this was going to go. She turned to walk away but the group of girls moved to block her way.

"Ya I know, knowing truly what she is, I would hate to be her child." Another girl said.

"Stop it." Karinai said, as she felt her anger lever rising.

"What, did we hit a nerve, or something?" The first girl asked in a mocking tone. "Knowing that your mother is a…"

"Don't say it." Karinai warned.

"…Skank." Finished the girl.

Normally Karinai didn't mind this, after all with every village she lived in, someone always called her mother something like this. At first she thought they were talking about her. "Don't worry my angel, they aren't talking about you. There talking about me." Her mother said when she had one day asked. At first Karinai was ashamed of her mother, and loathed her for what she did, but after a while it just didn't matter anymore. "These people are judging only one part of my life that happened. They don't have the heart to look at the good that came out of it, only the bad." Her mother used to say. Her mother might have been right about that, but the thing that bugged her so much was not the fact of what her mother was, it was the fact that no matter how many times she asked, her mother never told her the identity of her father. "Let's just say he was one of a kind." Was all she said, from what her mother said she had inherited her father's hair, nose and intelligence the rest had come from her mother, well except for her eyes. Her eyes from what her mother had told her, she (her mother) and father had the same kind of eyes.

But something about just hearing a girl her own age say that about her mother, made all the anger that she hadn't felt for years came back. She felt a loathing that she had never felt before.

"Hey what's up with your eyes?" The first girl asked. "They're changing colour. They're turning red."

Karinai had heard this before. It was true that her eyes changed colour. That is what her mother had meant when she said she had inherited her mothers and fathers eyes; after all she had seen her mother's eyes go pure red when she was angry. So obviously her father had those kinds of eyes to.

At this point the group of girls started getting scared. "What's the matter with her eyes?" they kept on asking. Finally a passerby stopped, he wore a Konoha head band and ninja clothing. The man took one look at Karinai, and let out a shocked expression.

"Those eyes, I haven't seen those eyes since…" The man trailed off. "You need to come with me, I need to take you to see some people." He finally said, grabbing her wrist.

"What's going on?" Merge asked, walking over to the man and Karinai.

"We need to take this girl and see Hokage-sama."

"What for?" Merge asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Can I tell you away from her, it's a private but important matter." asked the man, in a grim tone."

"Of course." Merge replied. She and the man walked to a far of corner from hearing ears. The man did most of the talking, and once in a while Merge would say a word or two, but that was all that could be seen or heard of their conversation.

Out of curiosity, Leara jumped off her swing and casually made her way over to her daughter. Her daughter turned away from her as if she was hiding something. She slowly turned her daughter around, only to find that her daughter had her head bowed so she could not see the child's face. She took the child's chin in her hand and slowly raised her head, only to be greeted with two piercing red eyes staring at her. Leara opened her mouth ever so slightly. _"Oh…My…God." _ Karinai turned to stare towards the borderline of trees. Leara turned to look at what her daughter was staring at, and saw to her horror Merge pointing directly at her while talking to a man in ANBU clothing. The man turned to look at her directly. At first his face was expressionless, then you could see the shock register on his face. _"Maybe he won't recognize you." _ But, alas, the man reached into his back pouch, pulled out a book… _"I know enough to know that that's a Bingo book."…_Flipped a few pages till he found the one he was looking for, and then started reaching for his back pocket. He silently told something to Merge, something that Leara could read that looked like: "Get everyone to safety, this woman is dangerous." He still was reaching into his back pocket; Leara could see the glimmer of a kunai in his hands.

"_Now it's time to play Leara, You have 30 seconds at the most to get out of here. You have no weapons so attacking him would be pointless. Unless you use __**that**__ technique…" _ Leara made a very slow movement towards her daughter, never taking her eyes off the man. She grabbed her daughters' hand, with her left hand. With the other hand she felt the ground for a stone, she found a good sized one and held it close in her palm _"By the looks of him you could just finish him off with close sparing, but why bother bringing attention to yourself." _Leara could feel the rush of energy that she had longed for the longest time serge through her veins.

And as the man drew out his kunai, she couldn't help thinking: _"Here kitty, kitty. Let's play a game."_ In less the a second the kunai was thrown towards her, and in a millisecond Leara had thrown the stone, which hit the kunai, which sent it in some other direction then her and her daughter's head.

The man was shocked, at her speed and reflexes. Taking the only opportunity at hand, Leara picked up her daughter jumped from the ground, into the trees and ran as fast as she could…

"Damn…" The man said, shaking his head in disappointment. "After all this time she's still got that ninja attitude." he turned his head, only to find that the woman who he had been talking to had her mouth slightly open in awe.

"Why did you do that for? Who was she?"

"That mam' is one of the most wanted women in these here parts." He replied. Looking off in to the direction that Leara had just ran to.

Merge let out a small grin. "You're kidding… Right?!"

"I could be kidding less. I'm going to need to find every little detail about her. Where she works, and stuff like that."

"Yes, of course" Merge said, walking away to gather up all the little girls running around.

The man let out a sigh and reached in his front pocket to get out his radio. _"Well, well, well. look's like you've finally decided to come to you're old home." _ He smirked._ "Looks like you've been busy, That face, and those eyes. And I was hoping for this day to be a short one…so much for that." _The man brought the radio up to his lips and contacted his team to re-tell the situation.


	2. Chapter 2

Ch

**Ch.2**

**I do not own naruto**

MEANWHILE…Two figures walk silently together through the empty back roads of Konoha, to keep there identities hidden. They wore black cloaks with red clouds on them. The only sound that was heard was the jingling of what appeared to be a rosary which hanged from the neck of a man with silver hair, and violet eyes.

"Hidan, for the love of God, can't you take that thing off or something so we can't be heard." The second man asked, in an irritated tone.

"You're kidding right? Like seriously, this is a symbol of my religion, and my devotion to Jashin-samma… In other words, no, Kakuzu I can't take this off." Hidan said in a defensive tone.

The two men continued walking in silence, well, that is, except for the jingling of the rosary…

_jingle…jingle…jingle…_

Kakuzu just kept on walking.

_Jingle…Jingle…Jingle…_

Kakuzu let out a deep sigh, trying to withhold his temper.

_**Jingle…Jingle…JINGLE…**_

"OHHH, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!" Kakuzu yelled "SHUT UP!!"

Hidan looked in amazement at his partner, never before had he ever seen Kakuzu like this. Inside he leapt for joy knowing that he had finally succeeded at pissing his partner off. He let out a smirk.

"What are you smirkin' at boy" Kakuzu challenged.

"Boy? Do you know how old I am?"

"No, how old are you."

Hidan opened his mouth to respond, but said nothing. "SHIT, how old AM I?"

Kakuzu let out an amused sigh and said "Dip-fuck"

Hidan again opened his mouth, ready to start an argument, but was silenced when Kakuzu darted his head straight ahead, as if hearing something coming towards them… sure enough a few seconds later, a young girl in her early 20's wearing a red spaghetti strap sundress landed a few feet in front of them.

Hidan opened his mouth in awe at the sight of the young woman, after all how many times does an attractive woman land just a few feet out of your reach. Kakuzu on the other hand had a very annoyed look and stepped forward ready to attack. The woman swiftly turned around, so she could face the two. For a moment Hidan and Kakuzu were stunned, because in the woman's arms was a small child, a girl, who was clinging to her like there was no tomorrow with her eyes shut tightly.

The woman looked like she was ready to attack the two men, but upon hearing another noise, turned her head, grabbed a tighter hold on the child, jumped and disappeared again.

It would be a lie to say that the 2 Akatsuki members were not startled for a moment, but they regained their heads once more and started walking once more, this time ignoring the jingling of Hidan's rosary. After all they had to reach their destination: a large company, located in the business part of Konoha, which for the past few years had been secretly giving the Akatsuki base secret information, the only problem was, no info had been received for the past 4 months. And of course the pair Pein had to have chosen was Kakuzu and Hidan. After a few more minutes of silent walking the two came to the large out line of the company they were heading to.

"Shall we go up and see this boss man of ours." Hidan asked.

"His name is Komoki, Hugai. And yes, Hidan, we shall go up to meet him, but let **ME **do all the talking. Although it's hard to believe not everybody in this world shares you're smart-ass attitude." Kakuzu said in a warning tone. Again the two fell silent as they approached the doors of: "Hugai law and office", and walked in…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**Chapter 3!**

MEANWHILE… Leara walked hurriedly down the halls of Mr. Komoki, her boss. Beside her Karinai walked beside her holding tightly onto her left hand. It had only been minutes since she had arrived to work, and about 45 minutes since the incident at the park, But Leara knew enough by know that time is only a figment of your imagination, and can work against you when you need it to help you. Actually the only reason why Leara came to her work after the incident was so that she could relieve her stress level even for a second. She didn't know why but working had always calmed her troubled mind, ever since she was little, when the yells and shouts of an angry father and siblings could be heard throughout the house, even when the pain that she suffered was so unbearable to keep in… _"__**NO!**__ stop thinking about that! You have more important things to worry about then your past." _ She though, and again like she had done so many times pushed the memories back into her mind. _"Ok think, Leara, what would the ANBU be doing right know? They would probably be looking through all the records they could find on me. Seeing if I changed my name, seeing where I live, talking to my neighbors, seeing if they can get any information on where I might go. Good, now how long do you have before the ANBU find out where you work, and to get here? I have 30 min to 1 hour at the most. Great, now what do we do now?" _

"Mommy?" Karinai asked, breaking Leara's trail of thought. "Are we going to have to run away again?" She asked her blue eyes, _"Blue eyes, not red.", _staring into her own blue eyes.

Leara always hated this part, saying that they _did_ have to run away again. She always felt a tinge of pain in her heart with each move here daughter had to take. Since her daughter was born, Karinai had been moved from place to place. Leara herself had been on the run since the age of 13 and often forgot on what it was like to be free, and not to have to worry about all this crap that she had to put up with.

"Mommy, why did you stop walking" Her daughter asked, again breaking her trail of thought.

Leara focused back in the real world, she hadn't even realized that she had stopped walking. Her daughter gave a puzzled look, but then gave a cute little smile that only kids can give, grabbed her mommy's hand again and started skipping. And so the mother and daughter went skipping down the halls, well that is until Leara came to her office. Silently the child and mother walked silently in, both hoping that no one had been notified of what was going on in the out side world. Thankfully, no one even lifted a finger from their work to acknowledge their presence. Leara walked to her desk and sat down, Karinai sat in a chair just opposite her mother for a few minutes, before getting off and moving it so she could be beside her mother.

"Leara, Mr. Komoki wants that paper work on the court hits from the past month handed in today." A woman said looking into Leara's portable office. She looked at Karinai, smiled and said "Hello there, you must be Karinai."

Karinai looked at the woman and said a shy "Hello"

The woman looked back at Leara and nodded her head, and left. Leara opened up her desk and took out a file folder. _"Strange…"_ She thought. _"Mr. Komoki usually only collects the court hits at the end of the month, It's only the 12__th__ hmm, strange." _ She got up and started to Mr. Komoki's office. She Tapped on his office door gently, hoping that she wasn't disturbing anyone.

"Come in" Replied the smooth, yet gruff tone of Mr. Komoki. She opened the door, and walked in, and nearly stumbled at the sight of seeing 2 other men in his office. The same 2 men that she had just seen minutes before. _"Red clouds that means there part of Akatsuki." _ The 2 men also seemed surprised to see her.

"Ahh, Leara, there you are. I would like to introduce you to, umm, two workers from out of town which are working on a project, in which they need to see the court hits from this month so they can do there job." Mr. Komoki explained while his hands played with the end of a pen.

Leara let out a small smirk. "_Right... I know what the court hits are, there the names and pictures of every criminal that comes through this office." _

Mr. Komoki looked at leara with a serious expression on his face. "Is anything funny, Leara?" He said in a serious, and challenging tone, which Leara knew all to well to shut up or else… She had often heard it coming from her father when he had nothing else to do but criticize and threaten her…

XXXXXXFLASHBACKXXXXX

"**Leara I thought I told you to clean the house and fix dinner tonight." Her father asked talking through the door, not in an angry tone, but Leara knew better then to open the door to him. **

"**Leara, PLEASE let me in…" He emphasized the word please. "**_**Oh, God, please not tonight I already am bashed and bruised from all this week." **_**Leara thought to her self, while sitting on her bed, holding her pillow.**

"**Leara open this door NOW!" **_**"Oh, God, here it comes."**_

"**Leara I'm coming in there…" She heard the door knob jiggle from the outside of her room. Leara hugged her pillow even tightly and brought her knees up to her chest. "GOD-DAMIT child open up this door right NOW!!" Her father started pounding on the door. **

"**What did the little brat do now?" Came the voice of a female, Leara's older sister. **

"**You know the beatings just gonna get worse, the longer you disobey." Her brother's voice rang out." **

**The banging on the door continued to grow louder. By now Leara was in a full fetus position on her bed.**

_**Bang, Bang, Bang**_

"_**Please stop…" **_**Tears started coming out from the corners of her eyes.**

_**Bang, Bang, Bang**_

"_**Oh, God no…"**_

_**Bang, Bang, BANG**_

"_**Please just let this end…" **_

**Then everything went quiet. No banging on the door, no yelling, not even a whisper. Just quiet… Then all of a sudden **_**WHAM!**_** The door flew open and the frame of her father was seen in the door way, along with her brother and sister. Leara just stayed petrified, her muscles started contracting if fear of knowing what was to come. She tried to go into a smaller ball but before she could move she felt the first hit of a hand hit her body. The pain was unbearably as it hit her ribs, which bore the marks of an already bruised body. As they continued to hit her she felt the hits become strong with chakra. Leara could feel her self screaming in agony, but heard no sound. She could see her family saying things, but heard nothing. By now the pain was almost unbearable, and as if almost everything was in fast forward, all her senses became fully aware of her surroundings, if only for a split second before she lost total consciousness… **

A bead of sweat fell from Leara's brow as she regained her surroundings of the office. "N, No. Not at all." She replied to her boss, who an expression of concern on his face. She handed the file folder to Mr. Komoki, who handed the file to one of the two men, who turned to leave. The other man, who had silver hair turned too, as he turned she saw the light hit a metal object on his chest.

"Hey! I know what that symbol is." Piped out a voice from behind her, it was Karinai. Leara had totally forgotten about her daughter. "That's the symbol for the Jashin religion."

The man stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to face the two females. At first he looked shocked. He first looked at Karinai, then slowly he turned his gaze to look Leara up and down before his eyes met hers. A small cheeky grin formed on his face. _"Oh, snap. I know exactly what he's thinking. Why does this always happen, either I'm mocked and shunned by the women or I'm some sort of fantasy for the guys! I can't win!" _ Leara looked away from his gaze, even though she knew it was a weak thing to do, but she hated it when guys did that to her.

"And how DO you know about the Jashin religion?" He asked in a smooth and cool tone, to her daughter, Karinai.

"Well ya see, my mommy and me both know someone who is Jashin. Well that and also my mommy is a Jashin, but not fully because she worships other religions to and ya…" Leara closed her eyes as soon as she heard her daughter mention that she was part Jashin. It was true, she was part Jashin, Leara's mother was, and decided to get her youngest child enrolled. It wasn't like she was immortal or anything like that, after all she would have to be one of those top notch dedicated people to do that, and that was definitely not Leara.

Yet the smirk on this Jashin worshiper widened. _"Oh hell NO!"_ was all Leara thought.

"You're a Jashinist?" Mr. Komoki asked, an expression of surprise on his face.

"Yes." Leara said _"why does every one seem so surprised at this." _ Leara turned to leave with her daughter, desperately hoping for this conversation to end.

"Well that explains a lot. I mean now I know why you have a child and look so young. For all I know you could be like 100 years old!" Mr. Komoki said pondering aloud.

Leara stopped dead in her tracks. 'ACTUALLY…" Leara began in a pissed off tone "Seeing that I worship more then one God, I technically can't become immortal, and stay looking one age forever. So no it doesn't explain anything. I am 21 years old and I have a 4 year old child, so deal with it." She clamped a hand over her mouth, realizing who she was talking to. _"Fuck, there goes this job"_

Mr. Komoki looked quite shocked at what she just said. The one man who was looking at her had a pleased look on his face, and his other partner turned around to fully face her with an interested look on his face as if wondering what was going to happen next.

"I am sooooo sorry." Was all Leara could say.

"My mommy's not having a good day, nothings going right, first the park and now this." Karinai spoke, still holding on to her mommy's hand. She looked up to find that her mother's head was slightly bent, as if awaiting a punishment. The seen of her mother made Karinai think of a 3 year old who had done something wrong, and awaited her punishment.

"It's ok Leara…" Mr. Komoki began in a soft tone, "We all have our bad days." He said as he walked over and gently patted Leara on the arm.

"_Is my boss trying to hit on me." _ Leara moved away "I'm just going to leave right now. I shouldn't have come to work today. Please excuse me." She walked around the 3 men in the office, with her hand in her daughters' an exited the room, with a feeling of great relief…


	4. Chapter 4

Mr

**Chapter 4… OMG 4 chapters in 3 days XO it's a miracle!!**

**I do not own Naruto, Nor will I ever…**

**After all I'm just a crazy fan girl, who spends my time doing this to stay out of trouble!**

Mr. Komoki let out a sigh, after the door shut behind Leara and her daughter. He turned to face the 2 remaining guests in his office. "That child is one of a kind. Not to mention she has a _great_ body."

"You're telling me." Hidan said in agreement.

Kakuzu let out a deep sigh of annoyance. "Let's go" He said as he turned for the door, Hidan followed behind him and shut the door as the 2 Akatsuki members left. _"A jashinist_. _A __**good**_ _looking Jashinist… could be fun." _Smiled Hidan. Kakazu noticed this and rolled his eyes.

"Hidan keep away from her." Kakuzu said and stopped his partner "Anyway, she has a child."

Hidan just kept on smiling to him self, thinking. As the 2 men came near to the elevator doors, they heard a familiar voice from ahead.

"Mommy, where are we gonna go?" It was the little girl that had been with the young woman named Leara.

"I don't know, my angel, but don't fret we'll find someplace." Another familiar voice replied, it was Leara, Hidan's smiled even more to himself side looking at Kakazu who had a very annoyed look on his face.

"Mommy"

"Hmm"

"How many religions _**DO**_ you belong to?"

"Well, let's see: Jashin, Catholic, Buddhism, United, and Anglican. So, I guess, 5."

"Oh. Mommy"

"Yes"

"Where are we going to go, I mean the ANBU is probably on there way right now and…?"

"Karinai, not here, I promise we will find a place to go."

The 2 Akatsuki members looked at each other, and decided then and there that it was the right time to make their presence known. Leara and Karinai turned their attention to Hidan and Kakuzu as they came to stand right beside them, Hidan, the closest to Leara, and Kakazu the closest to Karinai.

The 4 of them stood, in silence not saying a word, waiting for the elevator. Hidan was side looking at Leara. Leara was looking rather bored and kept her focus on the elevator. Karina and Kakazu, on the other hand, were looking directly at each other, just looking at one another. Kakuzu tried to look away but the child just kept on looking up at him, not blinking… The whole thing was starting to "creep" him out.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, the chime of the elevator came. The doors opened to reveal a normal, average looking elevator, except for the large window that you could see out of. The view was overlooking the district in which the building was located. All at once all 4 of them tried to get in to the elevator all at once. After a lot of pushing, shoving, and moaning all 4 were in the elevator. Karinai pressed the button for the bottom floor, while her mother adjusted her knapsack and purse. Kakuzu guessed that she had probably just grabbed it from her office before coming for the elevator. The child, Karinai, to, had a knapsack attached to her back.

Both Hidan and Kakuzu were on the left side of the elevator, and the mother and her child to her right. The 2 men watched as Leara let out a deep sigh and sat down leaning up against the wall, eyes closed as if trying to sleep. Karinai looked out of the huge window as they descended. For a few minutes all was silent, then with a gasp Karinai rushed over to her mother and started pulling her arm, Leara let out a moan to show she was listening.

"Mommy you might want to see this?"

Leara turned her head in the direction of her daughter to show she was listening, but still kept her eyes shut, perfectly content. Karinai on the other hand walked around her mother, shaking her head. She grabbed hold of her mother's skull and started shaking it franticly. "Come on mommy…" she said again, this time with an annoyed tone. "You gots to see this."

With a moan Leara opened her eyes, got up and walked over to where her daughter had been standing, under the eyes of the 2 akatsuki men on the other side of the elevator.

The 2 men looked questioningly at each other, and they, to, moved towards the window. Side by side they all looked out side, and to their horror saw at least 30 ANBU soldiers making their way to the building. Karinai let out a gasp, Kakuzu was silent, and Hidan and Leara said "SHIT" in complete unison.

"They came faster then I expected." Leara said turning away from the window. "Either they've gotten better in skill or I've gotten popular over the past few years."

"Wait, wait, _What?" _ Hidan asked in a confused tone, as if not understanding the full story… "The ANBU is after her?" He said turning to Kakuzu, and pointing a finger in Leara's direction.

Kakuzu nodded…

"And their not after us?"

Kakuzu shake his head no…

Karinai looked at the 2 men and said… "Well, technically they could be after you…"

Hidan sank down, so he was at the little girls' level, with a small, mocking smirk on his face. "And, do _you _even know who we are." He said in a smart ass tone.

Now there are some things in life that Karinai could handle… being treated like she was a stupid little kid, on the other hand, she couldn't. "Actually…" she began in a smart little girly tone "I do. You 2 are part of the Akatsuki. A group of S-ranked criminals that have been defected by you're home village." she concluded, giving the same mocking smirk to Hidan. She giggled, and went to stand beside her mother.

Now even Kakuzu was trying to hold back his laughing. "Wow, Hidan…" he said in a quaking voice "You've just been told by a 4 year old girl." And at this he let out a small giggling sound escape him.

Hidan on the other hand stood up with a rather pissed off look on his face, though you could see a hint of red creeping up on his angular cheeks.

Leara noticed this and smiled. Despite the fact that the ANBU was probably preparing to kill her and all, the only thought that ran through her head was: _"Thank God I have a smart child…" _ Unfortunately this moment of happiness did not last because reality set in, and it set in from her daughter asking the most random question that she had ever heard…

"Mommy, are we gonna die in an elevator? cause if I'm correct, we have no where to run."

It would be a lie to say that Leara was seriously thinking about telling her daughter, yes it would seem that they were going to die in an elevator, but decided at the last minute not to… I mean after all her daughter was only 4, and there is only so many things a 4 year old can handle…

So instead she put on a fake smile and said no.

Hidan and Kakuzu on the other hand looked at each-other, completely oblivious that Leara was trying to protect her daughter from the truth, and opened their mouths to object. They were just about to, when Leara gave the 2 men a very threatening look, as if to say "_You say one word and be prepared to feel my wrath"_ Needless to say they closed their mouths very quickly.

The 4 year old, on the other hand was not fooled… Although her mother was one of the best liars and actors she had ever seen, Karinai knew when her mother was making something up and, this was one of those times. She looked at her mother with an eyebrow raised.

Leara knew what that look meant. She, to, had given that look to a number of people when they had given her some sort of crap to believe. "Karinai, as long as they don't cut off the power supply to the elevator, we should be able to escape." and that was the truth.

Needless to say not even 30 seconds after Leara had spoken. The lights of the elevator flickered and went off, and the elevator stopped with a thud and screech.

"Nice going… Blondie…" Kakuzu said.

Leara's right eye twitched at the word "Blondie". "I'll pretend I didn't hear that." was all she said walking over towards the 2 men, with her daughter behind her.

Karinai moved in front of her mother. "I knew it, WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" Karinai exclaimed before thrusting her head into her mother's stomach, at which Leara gave a little twitch of un-comfort.

Static blazed into the elevator. The 4 captives looked up to find a small P.A. system just above their heads. The static continued for a few more seconds before a voice was heard over the P.A.

"Is it working, Is it working? It is? Good" Rang out a deep masculine tone. "humph, Khanoy, Leara…" The man began…

Leara flinched at the sound of her last name.

Hidan smirked, the word "Khanoy" in Jashin meant deadly and, the name "Leara" in Jashin meant Lotus. _"Deadly Lotus, nice name. wonder if she lives up to it." _ and he licked his lips at the thought of how powerful she could be and, how much pain she could cause.

"Leara. We know you are in there, there is no use trying to escape." The man said in a nice calm tone.

Leara walked over to where the buttons for the floors were and pressed a small red button that said P.A. she then leaned into a small speaker that was right beside the button and said: "Who said that I was trying to escape? Can't I ride in an elevator, or has that become outlawed in the past few years since I left, cause I have to say I ride the elevator every day." Leara's voice could be heard from the speaker above Karinai, Hidan and, Kakuzu's head.

At first the Male didn't answer, but soon they could hear the breathing of his voice on the other end. "Leara, please, we just want to talk and question you. You may have some very important information on some people." He said is a nice soft tone.

Leara pressed the button. "And I say _PLEASE, _I'm just trying to get home with my daughter."

"_Daughter?_ You have a daughter? They never told me that you had a daughter…" (This made all 4 of them smirk just a little)

"And they never told me that I would be ambushed at work… I guess we're even." Leara said mimicking the man's tone.

"Leara…" The man's tone had suddenly become serious. "With what you've done, you're lucky we haven't killed you yet. In you're lifetime you have probably broken at least ¾ of the laws not only in Konoha, but every-where else you've been… Please…" His voice suddenly went soft and kind. "You used to be one of the best ANBU member's in these parts, please help us… It could help you and you're daughter."

Leara again pressed the button, and sighed "You're right, I _used _to be good"

"Yes we know…"

"Even the Hokage said I was good." She said in a weird tone.

Hidan, surprisingly, knew this tone all to well. _"Shit, she's playing them right into the palm of her hand…" _

"I know, we all knew you're talent…"

Leara let out a fake sniffle. "I didn't mean to do what I did, I had to do it." She said building up fake breaths to add drama to the scene.

"No one blames you." The man said in an even softer tone. "And that is why we need you to help us."

"Ok, for my first act of business, I'm going to tell you the truth about some-one."

"Who?" The man said in an earning tone.

"Some-one very bad…" Leara continued to sniffle.

"Who?" The man's deep voice said in a deep tone.

"My…my…"

"Who, Who, WHO!"

Leara let out a final gasp, and then in a serious tone said " My boss, Mr. Komoki…"

"What" The man said in a pathetic tone.

"Mr. Komoki, has been giving information to the Akatsuki. What type of information you ask? Well for starters all the case files of the criminals and the accused that pass through this office."

At this both Hidan and Kakuzu looked at each other with such an amused expression on their faces. There was no way anybody back at the hideout would believe what had just happened.

"Leara, are you lying" Was all the man could say.

"Hey if you don't believe me, go and ask Mr. Komoki where the case files for this month are… see what he has to say about that!"

The man stuttered a little as if trying to figure out what to say, before mumbling for them to turn of the P.A line.

But before they cut the line Leara said one last thing. Something that would probably haunt all those members of the ANBU for the rest of their lives…

"Oh, and by the way… I was once one of the best ANBU soldiers there were. I fought for good and justice, I dedicated my life to the way of the ninja. But like I said: _Once._ Even the best can turn bad… No matter how skilled or how perfect you think some-one is, they can always turn bad. I would think Konoha, of all people, would know this… Seeing as it happened to: Orochimaru, Uchiha Itachi and, most recently, just 3 years ago, Uchiha Sasuke…"

"Wait, what you just said about…" was all the man could say before the P.A. system was cut off…

For a few minutes all was silent. All that was heard was the breathing of the 4 trapped members.

"Now what." Kakuzu finally said.

Leara walked over to the Akatsuki member's and her daughter and said "Now we escape…"


	5. Chapter 5

It would have been a lie to say that Hidan and Kakuzu were not impressed by Leara and her daughter… Her attitude was somewha

**Ok, here is chapter 5. **

**I do not, nor will I ever, own Naruto **

It would have been a lie to say that Hidan and Kakuzu were not impressed by Leara and her daughter… Her attitude was somewhat rude, and she spoke what was on her mind therefore being very upfront. Yet from what they had both seen, she had a softer side, she cared for the one's she loved. But they couldn't deny, that they had no idea on how Leara was going to escape, they where at least still 50 stories from the ground floor and, Hidan and Kakuzu were pretty sure that they never taught you: **how to escape from an elevator 101 **,at the academy.

So they were pretty startled when Leara dropped her bag, with a loud thunk and made her way over again to where the floor buttons where, bent down to where a small metal outline of a box was, pulled back her hand and punched in the frame.

Kakuzu went up behind her, to see what impression she had left on the frame and saw a hole, right through the middle of it. Hidan and Kirinai walked over, just as Leara pulled out her hand from the inside. Besides Leara's hand being a little red I was completely undamaged. It wasn't surprising though seeing as so many ninja's relied on strength as their main power source.

"Karinai" Leara softly said, moving a little to the side, and motioning for her daughter to kneel down beside her. Her Daughter did. "I want you to look though the hole that I just made." Karinai did. "Do you see those 2 blue and green wires?" Karinai nodded and said yes. "Those are the 2 main power cords. I want you to reach inside and unplug them, so that the elevator or, any of the elevators, for that matter won't be able to move at all."

Leara got up from kneeling, so Karinai could get a better view of the wires. While Karinai was unplugging the wires, Leara walked over to her bag which she had dropped in the opposite corner and opened it. Hidan turned to see what she was doing, directing his attention away from Karinai. After a few minutes of digging through the bag, Leara pulled out a pair of, what appeared to be, a pair of pants and a top.

"Do you always carry around an extra pair of clothes?" Hidan asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Only when I need to." Leara responded in a smooth tone, getting up and closing her bag.

Karinai walked over with Kakuzu. "I unplugged the wires mommy… Are you going to get changed?" She asked.

Hidan who hadn't been paying attention suddenly became fully aware and alert. His attention went from Karinai straight to Leara who was holding the clothes in hand.

Leara sighed deeply before saying: "Well, I really don't want to have to escape and climb wearing a dress, so, yup, I'm going to get changed. But not here" she quickly said, after seeing Hidan's expression.

Kakuzu gave a confused expression. Leara pointed to the ceiling of the elevator. "I'm going to get changed on _top_ of the elevator."

She said before picking up her daughter. She told her daughter to kick hard. Karinai kicked the ceiling only once before one of it's shingles popped off. Karinai removed it, before being put down by her mother, and handed it to Leara, who took it along with her clothes before jumping through the hole to the top of the elevator.

Hidan walked under it, to see if he could see anything. He was greeted by Leara's face which had a look of: _"Nice try"_ before she brought down the shingle and put it back in place.

« _Dum-di-dada-dum-di-da »_ came the chime of a cell phone. The chime continued as Karinai went over to her mother's bag, opened it and dug inside of it, until she found a small portable phone. Leara yelled down from the roof to answer it, Karinai did.

"Hello" She said in a cute childish voice. The person said something, and, Karinai's voice changed back to normal. "Oh, hi Cam!" she said with excitement, before yelling to her mother who was on the other phone. To which her mother responded with; "Tell him I'll be there in a few minutes."

Karinai said okay to her mother, before going back to talking on the phone. "Sorry Cam, where in an elevator, and mommy's getting changed. She said she'll be with you in a moment." The person said something else, and Karinai walked over to beneath the shingle.

"Mommy, Cam says he wants to be put on speaker phone."

"OK, angel, you can put it on speaker phone." Came Leara's reply.

"But I don't know how." Karinai said, with a touch if a whine.

"Just press the blue button with the wavy things on it!" Leara responded, this time her voice sounding a little frustrated.

"I can't find it." Karinai said in a whiny voice.

All of a sudden an arm shot down from the roof. Hidan and Kakuzu realized that it was bare. "Karinai give me the phone"

"Are you done getting changed already?" the child asked surprised.

"No. Now give me the phone." The arm made a snapping gesture.

"But then…"

"Karinai, just give me the phone" Leara said in a strict tone. The whole conversation sounded like it was happening between to sisters, not a mother and daughter.

Karinai handed the phone over to her mother, who took it pressed a button and tossed it back to her daughter, before saying: "hey Cam"

"Hello Leara" responded the voice. It was a smooth tone; not to deep, but not to high.

"You're on speaker phone so watch what you say." Karinai said, innocently.

"I always watch what I say."

A little laugh was heard from above Hidan and Kakuzu, followed by a head popping out from the roof of the elevator. "Rrrrrriiiigggghhhht!" Leara said with a smirk on her lips and a sparkle in her eye.

"Oh will you shut up." Cam said from the phone, which, of coarse, every-one heard.

"Watch it there is a child in the room." Leara said warningly, still hanging upside down.

"I not a child!" protested Karinai, walking, so she was just the side and underneath of her mother. The little girl opened her mouth to say more but, before she could even open up her mouth, a red, spaghetti strap, sundress landed on top of her head. "Hey!" she said from beneath the dress.

Leara burst out in tiny silent giggles. A hand came out to cover her mouth, so her daughter couldn't hear… it didn't work.

"Oops! Sorry sweetheart." She said, while trying to withhold her giggling.

At the same time her daughter took the dress off form her head to show a very dirt look to her mother, well, as dirty a look as a 4 year old can give, but it was still quite frightening and, although no one noticed, a flash of red flickered through her eyes before returning to their normal shade of blue.

Cam, though no-one appeared to be listening to him was trying to figure out what the hell had happened. Leara told him she would tell the story later and, then asked her daughter if she could move just a little bit away.

Kakuzu and Hidan looked at each other. Both wondering what was going on and, were about to break the silence, when Leara flung herself from the roof, did a summersault in the air before landing on the ground.

She was wearing black Capri pants, sport like, with a red Chinese design on the hem of the legs. The top was a kimono like top, again black with red design on the hem, which covered the top of the Capri pants to about high thigh. Her hair was now tied up with a red ribbon into a pony tail. All together, if you would have seen her, you wouldn't have believed that she was about to escape from an elevator. She just looked like she was going to go out on a day of shopping.

"Oooh, mommy you look _really _pretty." Karinai said walking over to feel her mother's top, it felt like smooth silk on the child's hands.

"What are you wearing?" Cam asked. But not in a normal tone, Kakuzu noticed, it had a very affectionate tone with a hint of curiosity. Kakuzu knew this tone all to well, since he was partnered with Hidan who always had that tone on when he was thinking something perverted.

Leara must of heard the tone too, because she rolled her eyes and said "Clothes!"

"What _type_ of clothes" he said in the same tone as before. This time Hidan noticed it too.

Leara let out a small exasperated sigh. "Use your imagination." She said folding her arms.

A small chuckle was heard from the speaker phone "Oh so you're wearing a French maid costume, with a _very _short skirt, along with fish net tights. While standing in my door way…"

"Mommy why are you covering my ears?!" interrupted Karinai, in a rather loud tone.

Kakuzu and Hidan turned away from the phone, towards Karinai, to see that Leara had put her 2 hands over her daughter's ears.

"And why are you blushing?" Karinai said again in a loud tone.

Hidan looked up at Leara's face and saw a light shade of pink showing on her cheeks, filling them with colour.

Laughter came from the phone, and Kakuzu couldn't help but think: _"Is it just me or does this guy sound exactly like the idiot standing right beside me…meaning Hidan." _

"Didn't I just say that there is a child here." Leara stated, more like a fact then a question.

"No actually you just said for me to imagine what you were wearing." Cam said in a, play full, smart ass tone.

Kakuzu shook his head in non-belief. He had to look over to make sure that Hidan was indeed standing beside him, rather than being on the phone and having this conversation.

"But…" Cam said, continuing. "I guess if you don't want your daughter to understand…"

Leara released her hands off of her daughter's ears.

"Then I can just speak in Jashin." Cam concluded, as both Hidan and Kakuzu did a double take towards the phone.

"NO!" Leara shouted.

"What? Karinai can't be that good at understanding the Jashin language already."

"It's not because of that." Leara said grabbing the phone from her daughter's hands "It's because that standing right across from me is another Jashinist." She said through clenched teeth. "And although I'm sure he wants to hear what you have to say about me, and what you think you know about me, I don't feel like having another person like you who knows me."

"To late for that." Kakuzu blurted out. Turning his gaze from Leara and her daughter to Hidan.

Hidan took this as an offensive statement, turned to his partner, and gave him a rather rude gesture.

"Boys…Guys…Men… Whatever you consider yourselves to be, both of you stop it!" Karinai stated, walking over to the 2 men and slapping them both on the wrists. Leara looked very shocked for a moment that her daughter would do that, but then again _**he**_ used to be bold like that to.

Giggling was again heard from the phone "Ooh, so there's 2 guys in the elevator with you…" a clicking noise followed, like the clicking of a tongue. "I am surprised at you. You have a daughter now, you can't be doing things like that with one person but two… I am shocked!" Again he had that play-full smartass tone.

Leara again started to turn pink, again, while Karinai turned and said "what does that mean?" although no-one took notice. Hidan and Kakuzu, who had been arguing silently in the corner stopped and turned.

"How did you know that we were trapped in an elevator?" Hidan asked, this time in his smartass tone.

It was Leara's turn to speak up, "Cam works for the ANBU, but don't worry, he's kept me a secret for over 4 and ½ years. So your safe, he won't expose you… But still how _did_ you know that we were trapped in an elevator?"

"First of all I know your whereabouts due to the fact that all, or most, of the ANBU have been notified that you are back in Konoha and have been ordered to go and capture you for your arrest at your work. They've even just started posting your pictures on the t.v and started announcing the warrant for your arrest over the radio. I was even one of the one's they asked to go and capture you, but I was able to get out of it by saying that it was a religious holiday."

"And secondly what do you mean by: '_you're safe, he won't expose you' _?" Cam said in a curious tone.

"Because, presently, I'm sharing an elevator with 2 members from the Akatsuki, and I think, tell me if I'm mistaken" Leara turned towards Hidan and Kakuzu. " that you are Hidan and Kakuzu… am I right?"

Both of the men nodded.

"Umm I don't mean to pry, but shouldn't we be escaping now?" Karinai asked

"Ya, right, Leara what do you need me to do." Cam said.

"Let me think." Leara said, closing her eyes.

Kakuzu looked impatient. "We don't have time to think!" he said in a very annoyed tone. "If you haven't noticed we're presently trapped in an elevator, which can't move, surrounded by only GOD knows how many ANBU members."

"JASHIN" Hidan and Cam both said in unison to correct Kakuzu.

Kakuzu rolled his eyes "Who cares?"

And before anyone could say, or do anything else, a battle of violent words came thrashing out from the 2 Jashinist's and Kakuzu. Karinai tried to break up the verbal argument, but did not succeed.

Leara sat down against the far elevator wall and closed her eyes, trying to close out the world around her, trying to forget about the pressure on her, trying to forget about the arguing between her team when she was back on the ANBU… _"NO! You promised not to think about your team a long time ago. You promised. Not only to yourself, but to __**him, **__you_ _promised never to look back when you left. That was the agreement you both had, and made! So STOP IT!" _

"You're right." whispered Leara, just barley audible.

All at once all the arguing stopped, and everything went silent. Hidan, Kakuzu and Karinai turned to face Leara, while Cam remained silent over the phone… so much for being non-audible…

Leara got up, "I know what we need to do." she said grabbing her bag. She quickly made her way over to where the hole in the roof was, again jumped through, was gone for about a minute before coming down. She flung her bag over her shoulder, so that her hands were free, before starting to create hand signals. A puff of smoke went beside her. As the smoke cleared it reviled an exact replica of herself.

"Mommy why are you using Bunshin no Jutsu? Are we going to have to use the technique also?" Karinai asked.

"Yes…" Leara turned towards Hidan and Kakuzu "…and so are you"

Karinai went first, creating a full replica too. Kakuzu was stunned that a 4 year old could do this, but dismissed it from his mind and created his clone as well. Hidan was the last to do so.

Now the elevator was covered in doubles, and was starting to get crowded.

"Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?" Hidan asked, walking away from his clone towards the real Leara.

"It's quite simple really…" Leara began "There is an elevator just a hop away from ours. The ANBU is expecting us to try and exit from this elevator, so there will be the most security around this elevator. You see the problem with the ANBU is that they are always predictable to cover the most obvious place to escape, they don't stop and think that, maybe, we might escape from another exit, and although there will be security, there won't be that much…"

"Oh, haven't you forgot one little detail.." hidan cut in "You unplugged the elevator so IT CAN'T MOVE!" he boomed, looming over Leara. He was at least 7 inches taller then her, and was looking rather intimidatting. His scarlet eyes blazing full of hate and anger.

"If you would let me finish…" Leara said, looking directly into his eyes with just as much power. "…That's what our doppelgänger's are for. Once we are safely in the other elevator they will re-attach the wires, so the elevators will be in working order. Then they will press the down button when we will. therefore.."

"Therefore creating a distraction, and making the ANBU think that you're coming down in that elevator." finished Cam.

"Right." Leara said, still looking into Hidan's gaze.

Hidan could feel the power in her gaze, percing his soul like daggers. The only difference between these 'mental' daggers was that he could actually feel pain as each one of them peirced his skin. And though he wasn't sure of it, he though he saw the young woman's eyes flicker a bloodly colour of red. "Forgive me." He said breaking the eye connection and turning quickly, so that his cloak rippled along the bottom, lightly touching Leara's skin.

The cloth felt smooth and soft to the young woman's touch, and a mental image came to her of that cloak surrounding her and shielding her from the outside world of anger and tourture. But before she could explore her thoughts and memories further a voice inside of her pushed the memories to the back of her mind, into a palce where the darkest of thoughts laid.

Hidan made his way over towards a surprised looking Kakuzu. Never had he heard Hidan actually apologize to anyone besides his god: Jashin.

"Do you want me to meet you." Cam asked through the phone.

"If you can, meet us at the back entrance near the back alley. No-one should be around there." Leara said turning her attention to the phone.

"Until then…"

"Cam?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you call me up anyways?" Leara asked taking the phone from her daughter.

"Oh, simple, I needed to ask you where, on your body, the appendix was."

"Why?" Leara asked though the tone in her voice sounded like it already knew the answer.

"Because I was in the middle of a ritual, and my head completely went blank on where it was located."

" You mean th-that you called me right in the middle of you stabbing yourself?"

"Yup. why" Cam said as if nothing was wrong.

"Nothing… I'll meet you when we get out."

"Okay. bye"

A click was heard and the phone went dead. Leara persed her lips together and closed her eyes, looking like she had just swallowed a lemon. She opened her eyes as her face fell back to it's normal position of grace. She Put the phone into her bag, and walked over towards her 2 identical daughters. "Karinai, where are those two wires that you unplugged?"

1 of the girls looked up. "I gave them to him." She said pointing to the Kakuzus'. She walked across the room and held out her hand.

Kakuzu looked confused. _"What the hell dose she want?" _ Hidan nudged him. He turned towards his partner "What?!"

Hidan rolled his eyes at the stupidness of his partner. "She wants the cords you dumb-ass."

"_Ohhh"_ Kakuzu reached inside of his cloak, grabbed the 2 wires, and dropped them into the little girl's hand.

Karinai walked back over to her mother and her doppelgänger and handed the 2 wires over to her replica, who took it and walked over to the hole in the wall and kneeled, waiting for further instruction.

Leara turned to face the 2 Akatsuki members, "Your job is to tell herwhen to put the wires in. She will know how to do it, but seeing as she is only a child, she will need guidence. You will be able to send thoughts between your 2 selves so that's how we will communicate."

The two repplica's of the crimminals both nodded.

"Is every-one ready?" Leara asked looking at all the faces in the room. They all nodded. "Good, lets go."

One by one each of them went through the hole in the roof; first went Leara, then Hidan picked up Karinai and handed her to her mother, next went Hidan, and finally Kakuzu. The top of the elevator was even cramped then the elevator itself. Everyone was cramped together so no-one would fall, and if any-one liked their personal bubble too bad, everyone got to know each other very personally being cramped up close to one another. Karinai, being the smallest, got the shingle and replaced it in its spot.

"So…" Hidan said re-arranging himself, so that he was righ up against Leara. "Where is this elevator?" stroking her arm ever so slightly, the skin felt smooth like silk.

Leara pretended not to take notice. "Right across there." She said pointing with the oppisite arm Hidan was caressing.

Kakuzu squinted in the direction which Leara had pointed, and finally spotted it. "Just a 'hop' huh? He said looking towards her.

…The word 'hop' usually means a short distance, and to use the term 'hop' to discribe the distance between the elevator which they were standing on presantly, and the elevator which they needed to go to would not be the greatest word. The word that would have been best suited would have been the word : Meters, as in " there is an elevator a few meters away", because the elevator was not a 'hop' away but more like 9 meters away…

"Yup" Leara said moving away from Hidan, towards her daughter. She picked up Karinai and, without saying another word, jumped over in the direction of where the elevator was.

Hidan went next without saying a word, and only the jungle of his rosary was heard.

Finally Kakuzu went and all he thought was: _"I'm getting to old for this shit!"_ When Kakuzu landed on the next elevator, he found that there was a hole in the roof. He clambered down to find that he was in an exact looking elevator like the one he had just been in moments before.

Leara stood next to her daughter beside the floor buttons. Before Kakuzu could say anything the lights flickered and a creaking sound filled the area. Leara nodded towards hidan who closed his eyes for a moment then re-opened them. From a far they could hear the creak of an elevator move. Leara pressed the button for the ground floor, and stood back.

All was silent up until they passed the marking for the 20th floor. Leara stood in front of the door looking foreward. "When these doors open expect about 10 to 20 ANBU members… Don't be afraid to kill them or damage them." She side looked at the Akatsuki members. "Just follow me once I start running. Kariani I'm gonna grab you and run with you in my arms. If you get scared at what you see close your eyes. And fight anyone who tries to grab you other then anyone in this elevator."

Karinai nodded, and stood behind her mother holding onto her mother's kimono like top , running it through her hands to calm her nerves.

Hidan pulled out his sieth, which no-one had really noticed, from his back and held it ready to attack. While Kakuzu had a rather bored expression on his face, but, regardless he got ready to attack. Leara just stood waiting for the '_ding' _and the opening of the doors.

The '_ding_' was headr and the doors opened to revile 12 or so ANBU members.

"HEY, THEY'RE…" A masked man began, but was silenced by a kunai, which struck him in the head.

Hidan and Kakuzu looked over to see that it was Leara who had thrown it. _"Wow, she's quick" _ they both thought.

2 ANBU members looked at the dead man, then at Leara. "Khanoy, Leara you are under arrest for the crime of murder, treason, and association with criminals that are wanted throughout…" Another kunai was thrown at the man speaking, but he dodged it.

Leara gave an evil smirk, that didn't look like it could have been formed on her face. "Don't tell me what I've done and all that other bull-shit. Just shut up and fight." She said her voice full of attitude. And although the 3 passengers couldn't see it, and only the ANBU could, Leara's eyes turned a bright crimson colour of red with black design that slowly wove its way into her eyes. It wove itself to become the sharingan.

Some members of the ANBU drew in a little breath at the sight, but prepared for attack. Leara moved her hands at a face pace in to the symbols: Rat, Tiger, Dog, Ox, Rabbit, and Tiger; Housenka no Jutsu. Droplets of fire, the size of soccer balls, flew out directly at the opponents. Once she was done a path could be seen where the ANBU had cleared out.

Leara grabbed her child and bolted down the center. Hidan and Kakuzu closely followed, killing or attacking anyone who came in close range. Leara turned a sharp corner, so did they. Hidan caught up close to Leara and shouted over all the voices yealling and shouting around them: "How did you learn that fire technique?" Leara didn't respond. Hidan tried again " Hey, are you listening? Only a few select people can use that technique. How did you learn it? Did you learn it from a Uchiha?"

Leara didn't respond, but Hidan noticed that she flinched at the name 'Uchiha'. He turned to fully look her in the eyes, and did a double take. Her eyes were the same design of one of his commrades: Uchiha, Itachi.

Leara stopped so suddenly, her daughter almost flew out of her arms. Kakuzu nearly ran into Hidan who had also stopped suddenly. Surrounding them was ANBU soldiers all ready to fight until the death.

"Every-one get really close to me!" Leara shouted.

Hidan and Kakuzu closed in on Leara so the air around them became stuffy and warm. Leara handed her daughter over to Hidan. He tried to look at Leara's eyes again, to see if he had seen correctly, but couldn't get a good enough look.

Leara once again preformed her hand symbols. This time no-one could tell what she was doing, she was that fast. It wasn't until that a barrier of fire encircled the 2 Akatsuki members as well as her-self, that people realized that it was Ryuuka no Jutsu.

But Leara wasn't done yet. This time she did her hand signs more slowly, as if remembering how they were done: Boar, Dragon, Serpent, Monkey, Ram, Serpent…

…If this Jutsu had ever been perfomed, no-one that was there knew what the hell it was. First the red and orange flames surounding the 4 of them spread out and turned a dark, black, purple colour. It spread throughtout the entire room like weeds, creeping in and out of the floor's marble design, until the only floor which could be seen was the circle surrounding the 4 of them and a cricle surrounding the ANBU.

Slowly the Black flame circling Leara and her group started changing into a sickly emerald green, which then started taking shape. A thin line of fames started to do the same, connecting the 2 circles together. A shape or a serpent started taking effect. It's long coiling body connecting the 2 circles. Its neack and head took shape around Leara's circle, while the lower belly and tail encircled the ANBU.

Leara closed her eyes, and talked. What she said, no-one knew, for to human ears it sounded like a bunck of hissing and spat sounds. But whatever she said the snake seemed to understand, for it opened an ugly yellow eye and moved it's head, so that it was in the air. It slowly becan to move away from Leara and coil it's way around the ANBU soldiers.

Leara took back her child from an amused Hidan, and began running on the once again white marble floor. Hidan and Kakuzu again followed. Leara let out one last hiss before exiting the building. The last thing that they all heard were screams of pain and terror.

They ran out into the fresh sun-lit day. Karinai looked around and pointed to a bronze coloured van. She got down and ran to it.

Leara grabbed onto Hidan's, and Kakuzu's hand and dragged them over to the van, before shoving them into the back seats, along with her daughter. Leara clambered into the front seat. In the drivers seat was Cam. He looked about in his late twenties early thirties, silver hair with a hint of blonde. And had very angular cheeks. His eyes were a soft colour of pale green.

Cam turned around to face Leara. "Any place particular?"

Leara let out a deep sigh "Nope, Just drive." She said befor leaning her head back and closing her eyes.

Cam smiled, and stepped his foot to the gas petal…


	6. Chapter 6

**Ok, here is chapter six!!**

**I can't believe I'm actually keeping up with this story. It's like a miracle…**

**This chapter may seem a little odd and boring, but I primise it wont be like this next chapter. It's just I really don't feel like making a long chapter, so I cut it off… sorry! Enjoy**

**I do not own Naruto**

_Two Weeks Later…_

A deep rumble of thunder echoed through the walls of the hideout, followed by a crack and crash of lightning, which wove itself through the clear sunny day. Almost immediately the sun was whisked away by heavy, dark clouds, and rain.

Outside, the few people who were out in the specific part of the land of the lightning ran to the comfort of their houses and apartments. All of them thinking that it was just a little rain, but to the few members of Akatsuki residing in the small, yet, roomy hideout just along the border knew that it was a warning not to disrupt Leader-Samma…

… A tall man in his 30's sat at a small desk. He had spiked orange hair and multiple piercings around his face. All about his desk were papers, pens, a stapler, and a cup of steaming tea.

But nothing at all was touched. The papers did not rustle. The pens were not writing, The stapler not staplering. Not even the tea which gave of a smooth, relaxing aroma, was touched, it just sat like every thing else… That is, all except for Leader-Samma aka Pein.

He had tried to keep himself busy that day, but whatever he tried to do just made him lose interest. So he leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head, looking at the ceiling, trying to assure himself that he had made the right decision…

… It had been mid-noon, days earlier, when Hidan and Kakuzu had returned from their mission, bursting in during a meeting. Both telling wild stories.

Hidan claimed that they had met some-one very odd and intriguing, a woman. . He claimed that she seemed to have recognized them immediately as members of the Akatsuki. She was very intelligent. He also said that she too was on the run from the law. He also commented that the woman had shown remarkable strength and talent with using fire technique and other such jutsu's, including one that they had never even seen. He also claimed that she had a child. He Also commented on that she was one of the most smexy-est people he had ever met, and gave a very detailed description of what she looked like and also might had exaggerated a few point all to well.

But what was most peculiar was that Kakuzu _**actually**_ had agreed, and backed up every single detail of the story. Except for the part bout what she looked like… he just ignored that subject all together.

The thought of Hidan and Kakuzu actually agreeing on something was just: wrong. It was like a horse and cow falling in love, **it's not natural**! So Pein decided that for the sanity of them, he would separate the pair and put them with "_temporary" _partners.

Hidan with Sasori

And Kakuzu with Deidara…

Pein leaned forward, grabbed his tea and took a long gulp. It felt warm and cozy as it traveled down through his body. And it calmed his nerves. He had made the right decision… right?

A gentle tap came from the door.

Pein looked up. "Who is it?

The door opened a few centimeters. "It's just me." Said a female voice. It was soft and gentle, like the voice of a mother.

Pein got up and walked over to open it fully to revile a young woman with signs of ageing just beginning to show up on her pale, china doll, face. Wisps of baby blue hair gently hung down on her face, but the majority of it was turned into a tight ballet bun sealed by a white origami flower.

"Come in Konan." Pein said moving aside for his partner to come in.

The young woman, named Konan, swiftly walked in. Pein again took his seat behind his desk, while Konan sat in the chair opposite him. "Here is the mission report update from Sasori and Hidan." She said reaching into her cloak, pulling out a few pieces of paper, and handing them over to Pein.

"Thank you Konan. Though I don't really think that you came here to just give me a mission report." He said smirking.

Konan arched a delicate eyebrow before smiling. "Like always, you can read me like a book… You're right I didn't just come here to give you a report. I came here to tell you that you did the right thing by splitting Hidan and Kakuzu up."

This time it was Pein's turn to arch an eyebrow and show an expression of "_I have no idea what you're talking about."_

Konan reached over and grasped her partner's left hand with both of hers. "Don't try and fool me. You have been worrying about the issue since you made it. And you're not fooling any of us." _'us' Meaning Tobi, Deidara, Zetsu, and Kakuzu. The Members presently residing in the comfort of their hideout._

Her hand was as soft as silk and smooth as paper. Pein felt the warmth of her hands and let it absorb into him like air. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "You're right, thank you Konan." He said reopening his eyes to look deep into hers'.

Konan smiled, and got up from her seat. "Glad to be of service." She walked over to the door and was just about to leave when she stopped "And, Pein, if you would be ever so kind to make it stop raining so hard. I'm afraid we've already started to leak in the main living room." She said before closing the door behind her.

Feeling quite more positive in himself, Pein took the papers. They were written in a, rather, messy hand writing, that Pein knew only to be Sasori's.

"I really need to teach him how to write." Pein muttered to himself trying to make out what the report said…

Here is what it stated:

**Mission **23 Date: October 21st

Team: Sasori and Hidan

Date left: October 19th

Starting point: Hideout located in Lightning

Ending Point: Konoha

Present location: Border of Konoha

Mission Objective: Gathering of Information from the source: Yakushi, Kabuto. Regarding Information about former member of Akatsuki: Orochimaru. Set location is an old subway system underground, with limited access.

Time till return: 1 to 2 days

Extra notes: My newest member: Hidan. He shows no views in art what so ever!

Pein sighed. It was now the 22nd. He truly and deeply hoped that he and his partner had been right in making this decision…

MEANWHILE… The echo of footsteps could be heard along the underground rail system. Business people were hurriedly running about their schedules. None of them noticing the 2 figures lurking in the darkened shadows, away from the travelers view.

The first was a rather boyish, red headed male, who was wearing a black cloak with red clouds. All together he looked like a good looking older teen, except for the fact that he looked rather uncomfortable with his surroundings. Every few minutes he would fidget or change his footing… the way he moved was rather odd as well, he moved very stiff and woodenly, as if he wasn't used to moving around in his body.

The second man was a familiar face. He had silver hair and violet eyes. Around his neck he wore a rosary, and around his back he wore a scythe. He, of course, was Hidan. He too was fidgeting, and moving around. Partly was because he hated being there… _"First leader-samma doesn't believe our story, which was true. Then he has the nerve to split us up, And pair me up with an artistic loving freak that shows no interest in any type of religion!" _ Hidan thought bitterly, as he leaned up against the cold wall. _"Then, to make things worse, Leader has the nerve to send me on this stupid, boring mission to collect information. Jashin-damn! I hate this stupid mission." _

As the hours grew late, and the subway lamps were lit. The two members stayed in the shadows. The passengers slowly dissolved, heading back to their homes. Still they waited

After about an hour after the lamps had been lit, only then did Hidan and the other Akatsuki member come out. They walked down the subway line, which many people had walked already that day. There footsteps echoing on the hard, damp pavement. A few people were still walking, but they paid no attention to the two men in cloaks.

The two men stopped briefly at a map of the station to look for their desired point of meeting.

"Kabuto said to meet on the # 43 south." The red head said. His voice was smooth and mature, not like the one of a teenage boy.

"I know, Sasori, you've told me the plan at least a half a dozen times." Hidan snapped at his colleague.

Sasori looked up at his partner warily, and made a weird movement with his back. They again began walking.

"And will you stop fidgeting like that…" Hidan again snapped.

"Well sorry! I'm not used to walking around like this, out in the open. I'm used to me being in the safety of Hiruko, and not being seen by so many people. You know I don't like it when people see me in my true form." Sasori said. this time it was his turn to snap. His features had turned impatient and fierce.

"Actually…" Hidan said in his famous pissed off tone. " I don't know that!"

Sasori looked down and mumbled "Deidara does."

Hidan to looked down. "I hate it as much as you do." he mumbled

They didn't talk the rest of the way, they just walked silently. They came to the #43 south, and waited…

…and waited…

… and waited…

…and waited some more…

"Oh my Jashin." Hidan said pissed off.

"Oh my God, I hate waiting" Grumbled Sasori turning to his temporary partner

"I know what ya mean." Hidan said "Kakuzu always has to take the longest time getting ready for missions. He thinks he has all the time in the world. Meanwhile I'm waiting for hours on end just so that we can leave… Then I'm the one who gets in shit!"

Sasori nodded in agreement "Deidara's the same way."

…Sasori and Hidan finally found something that they both disliked, Which started multiple conversations of many things, one such conversation consisted of a duck and a frog but, that's a different story…

Finally the subway arrived. The doors opened with a _ping, _and Sasori and Hidan both stepped in. No-one was is the subway, that they could see, or at least in the section they were located in. They had just sat down when they heard one of the joining doors open then shut.

"Hey You!" A voice piped out. "I thought no-one else was on here."

Hidan thought for a moment. _"That voice sounds way to familiar…"_

Sasori thought as he rolled his eyes. "_Great more company." _

The 2 men turned around to see a small girl about the age of four, with long black hair tied up into 2 Chinese style buns, bright blue eyes, and wearing a white and black dotted sun dress.

She had a look of confusion looking at the red headed man, before turning to the Jashinist. Her face went from confusion to a smile. "Hi!" she said cheerily to Hidan.

Sasori turned to face his partner, with a questioning look. Hidan just looked at the child in silence, before saying: "Hello Karinai."…


	7. Chapter 7

I do not own Naruto

**I do not own Naruto. **

**OK, so first things first, this chapter to me is very confusing, and not the most interesting one. But I promise the next chapter is going to actually be exciting (Hopefully, since I haven't even thought about it… but I'll come up with something.) Also this story is taking place about 2-3 months before shippuden, I think, I may change it later! Anyway, too the story!!**

Chapter 7

Leara's eyes fluttered at the lack of sleep…

"**Momma…"**

…she had to stay awake…

"**Momma… Momma?" The 6 year old blonde ran downstairs…**

… Leara closed her eyes. _"I have to stay…"_

**The clock read 2:40 am. It had been a high pitched scream. That's what made her wake up, a scream…**

…Her body relaxed as her memories took over…

**The little child turned on the downstairs light, it blinded Leara's eyes. "Momma?" she asked again… **

…**There was no answer…**

**Leara walked along the hardwood floor out of the kitchen and into the front hall her small feet barely even making a creek. The hem of Leara's cotton baby blue nightgown rippled around her feet to revile a small scratch from training at the academy the day before. A gentle breeze came from the direction of the door. Leara walked towards it in the darkness. Instead of it being closed and locked, the child found it ajar.**

**Walking in and out of the lights pale moon, Leara walked towards the open door and stood…**

"**Momma?"… **

**Movement was seen among the shadows. Leara stepped out onto the cold pavement, cautiously moving towards the movement in the shadows.**

**Leara put her foot down and felt something hard pierce her soft flesh. She moved her foot, only to revile a kunai. The child bent down to pick it up, ignoring the pain in her left foot.**

**She looked around on the ground, and that's when she saw it, blood. Not her own but large amounts of it surrounding her.**

**The six year old, Leara, started to breath heavily. The same object moved again.**

"**Leara…" said a familiar voice. One that Leara had heard every day, urging her to study hard, be good, and to grow up strong… the same voice which had told her time and time again that she was to young to make cookies… her mother.**

"**Momma?!" Leara said again, this time running towards the figure. Her foot slipped on something and she fell. She looked around to see what she had stepped on, blood, in fact now she was covered in it. **

"_**So much blood**_**"…**

**Leara crawled the rest of the way, not minding how much blood she got covered in. She felt it seeping into her night gown…**

"_**So much blood**_**"…**

… **Leara kneeled beside the figure. Leara looked away, it was to dark to see anything. A steam of light from the moon light up the path, and the six year old gazed directly into the eyes of her dying mother.**

"**Momma" she whispered, looking at her mother's face. Her mothers light blonde hair was matted and now stained with red, as it covered her face. **

"**Karinai.." Her mother's voice whispered as she raised up a hand to her daughter and touched her cheek, It to was dowsed in blood.**

**Karinai caught a look of her mother "**_**So much blood**_**"…**

**This time another scream was heard. It was coming from Leara's own voice. It was the scream of a six year old girl.**

**A dog started barking, as one by one the lamps of the houses were lit, one by one.**

**Leara's father came running out, followed by a sleepy brother and sister. He took one look at Leara then his former wife. He ran and pushed Leara aside to aid his dying wife, her brother and sister followed. **

**Leara still stood, her screaming had died down to a small weeping and gasping noise. **

"_**So much blood**_**"**

"_**Blood, blood, everywhere." **_

**She again started screaming. She did it just cause she could. She screamed as all the neighbors came out. She screamed even as she saw her best friend, her companion, the father of her child, show up with his family. She screamed until the ANBU showed up. Leara continued screaming until she passed out…**

MEANWHILE… Karinai was still looking at Hidan, when Sasori spoke up. "We don't have time for this… why don't we just kill and get rid of her."

Karinai took a step back, and looked directly at Sasori, terror plastered to her face.

Her lower lip trembled, which made Sasori smirk. Hidan took a step in front of Karinai and said: "No."

Sasori frowned a little. "Hidan, she may be a spy for Orochimaru…" he hissed.

Karinai peeked out from behind Hidan's cloak, clutching it in her hands. A new expression was on her face, it was a cross between terrified and disgusted. "You mean that guy who takes over bodies of little boys." She squeaked, still holding onto Hidan's cloak. It felt very soft and fine.

Sasori looked at Karinai, very confused. Hidan pulled his cloak away , and went to stand next to his partner, he to looked at her confused. Sasori and Hidan looked at each-other before asking "And how do you know that?"

Karinai's face returned to normal and said: "My mommy."

As if a light bulb had lit in Hidan's head he suddenly realized that Leara must be here with her child. This would mean that he would be able to prove that he was telling the truth. _"That'll show __**Leader-samma." **_ He thought, in his pissed off inner voice. He bent down to Karinai's level.

"Karinai, where's your mother?" He looked up at Sasori "These are the people I was telling you, Leader, and every one else about. But you wouldn't believe us."

Sasori, gave Hidan a look like, _Ya your point?_

"She's driving the subway." Karinai said simply

Sasori smirked. "Wait, your mother is wanted by the ANBU right?"

Karinai nodded.

"Then how would she be able to get a job, if the whole village is practically looking for her. Nobody in their right mind would hire a wanted criminal." His smirk had turned into a full smile. "Hidan, I must admit, you are one good story teller." Sasori turned to walk away when he felt a small tug on his cloak. He turned to see the little girl holding onto it.

"Well…" She said in sheepish tone. "She didn't really apply…" Karinai looked of into space… and began telling the 2 men of what had happened, though she did leave out some detail.

XXXXFLASHBACKXXXX

"**Mommy, how are you going to do this?" Karinai asked as she sat on her mother's lap, seeing as no empty seats on the subway. **

…**It had been one day since the escape from the office. They had spent the first night over at Cam's. Her mommy and herself had shared the small twin bed, in the spare room. She was awakened by her mommy, before the sun had risen up. They grabbed a few things, including some of their clothes (This wasn't the first time they had been over to Cam's hiding, and they made sure they always had money and extra clothing just in case), money, some kunai and other weapons, and a map. Before they left, her mother had left a note in Cam's room, on his night stand, explaining they had left. **

**She had grabbed onto her mommy's hand while they walked through the still-dark alley ways. She was always scared of these. People dressed in rags looked at her mother in cheeky ways, which made her hold onto her mother's hand tighter.( She wasn't sure but she thought to that her mother even squeezed her hand back) There was even a man, who wasn't dressed in rags but in a suit. He was talking to another man and stopped, when he had seen her mommy. He had looked her up and down before grabbing her free arm, and saying to the other man: "I'll take this one." **

**The other man looked confused. "She's not one of ours." **

**The well dressed man smiled. "That's ok, I'll still take her." He turned to take Karinai's mommy with him, but she just shook off his arm and started walking away in the opposite direction. **

"**Heh, I don't thinks she's interested." The one man said to his friend. **

**Karinai noticed the other man scowling, before he started toward her mother and her. **

"**Hey you" He said. **

**Her mother had pretended not to hear, though she had seen her mothers eyes flicker to the side. **

"**I'm talking to you." He said coming beside her mother and once again grabbing her free arm, but this time he pushed her into a wall. Karinai let go of her mommy's hand. **

**She remembered the anger in her mother's eyes, even though they didn't turn red, she still saw anger. **

**The man had smiled as he had moved his arm down towards her mother's jean pants, touching the top jean button. **

**And in record time her mother had him pinned up against the wall. Her left hand was applying presser to the man's right hand, which was now twisted behind his back. She had leaned close to the man's ear and whispered something, that couldn't be heard. The man responded with "You Bitch". **

**That was all her mother had needed to hear because she drove all of her pressure into the man's arm, while a crack was heard. **

**Her mother had let go of the man, and resumed walking. Karinai raced over and grabbed the hand of her mother once more. Together they had made there way to the subway station where now they sat…**

**Her mother looked down and smiled. "Just trust me, OK?" she said as she started stroking her daughter's hair and humming a long lost lullaby, which she had far forgotten. **

**The two of them stayed on the subway until they were the only one's left. As the driver had come walking through the empty subway cars, she felt her mommy go. **

**The driver, male, came through the car where she was sitting in and asked her what she was doing here all alone. Karinai had seen her mother come up behind the man. He had turned around, and gasped sputtering that she was the one the ANBU was after. He pulled out a walky-talky to contact anyone, but her mother was to fast and had already put a deep slash in his stomach. The driver had fallen to the floor, dead. Karinai had seen many people die, so it didn't bother her much. **

**And now this was what her mommy had been doing for the past few days…**

Hidan and Sasori had a very odd expression, one that can't even be described, on their faces as they looked at Karinai finish her story.

…Karinai had left out the part about the man, who had grabbed her mommy, because later on that day, her mother had made her swear never to tell anyone about that...

"So you're telling me…" Sasori began, looking very confused "…That Hidan and Kakuzu were actually telling the truth…"

Karinai looked confused "Truth about what?"

Hidanwas about to speak up, but then a low cry was heard. No one really heard, but it sounded like: "momma"

Again another scream happened, this time louder "**momma"**

"That's the voice of my mommy" Karinai said, right before the loudest cry occurred

"**MOMMA!" **

Karinai was the first to bolt to the doors, followed by Hidan, and finally a reluctant Sasori.

They ran in and out of the carts, until they arrived to the main control booth, Karinai tried the door knob, but it was locked. She reached down into her left sneaker and took out a small metal key, and opened the door. They all burst inside to find a sleeping Leara.

Karinai started shaking her mother back and forth.

Tears slowly made their way down her face. Leara was crying. She was slowly mumbling to herself and moaning, only a few things were heard. "Momma… Momma…. Momma…I'm sorry…. Please"

Karinai kept on shaking her mother frantically. "Come on, mommy, snap out of it like you usually do…"

Slowly Leara's voice became more silent, and Karinai felt her mother's muscles tense when she was shaken.

Sasori and Hidan just stood in the corner. "What a strange woman" Sasori mumbled. Hidan looked over and shrugged it off. Sasori turned to his partner. "We don't have time for this. Any moment Kabuto will be here. We don't have time to be wasting with them…"

Sasori was cut off by the sound of a moan. Hidan turned from his partner and kneeled down on one knee in front of Leara. He also grabbed one of her hands.

The whole scene looked like he was about to propose… NOW that's SCARY!!

Leara opened her eyes, lazily, to find her daughter to the side of her, shaking her back and forth. Also, if she wasn't mistaken, was a member of the Akatsuki which she knew to well to be Hidan, who she had met a few weeks ago in an elevator while trying to escape her own death from the ANBU.

To make things even more confusing, Hidan appeared to be down on one knee, her hand in his, looking like he had just proposed. The only thing that she thought was _"Either I'm still dreaming or I'm soooo wasted right now, and am currently be asked to wed…"_

So it wasn't quite surprising that the first words that left Leara's mouth were "...The fuck…"

Karinai bolted in front of Leara, causing Hidan to fall over (A few words were said, but it's best not to say) "MOMMY!" She yelled as she tackled Leara around the neck for a hug.

Pain erupted through-out her body. It started on her neck and made its way down her spine and through-out her muscles. Leara hadn't felt this pain for years. And beneath her silk blue shirt, although no one saw, a black design surfaced on the left side of her neck. A design which hadn't surfaced for over 4 years.

Leara took in a deep breath, instead of screaming out in pain, she didn't want to alarm her daughter. A serge of anger and hotness ran through her veins, another thing she hadn't felt for nearly 4 years. _"He's close, I know it. He's close and he's angry."_

Sasori noticed the faint flicker of pain in the woman's eyes as her daughter had hugged her. He was sure no one else had seen it, but he had seen it, he had also felt a flicker of her chakra change, then turn back to normal. Sasori normally didn't pay attention to younger women, he found them loud, and annoying, but he had to admit this one was rather charming. It was something about her eyes, they seemed to hold a darker side to them, a history. They were also a very rare shade of blue that looked bright in the light, yet pale in the shadows. They were very artistic.

Leara looked around to see a red-headed man staring at her. _"That's Sasori of the red sands." _ She looked to Hidan, he had gotten up, and was now standing in front of her. Again, a serge of pain went through her body. She gently moved her daughter off of her, and got up.

"Are you alright?" Hidan asked. Though no-one heard, a hint of worry was in his voice.

Leara was about to reply that she was fine, she had no memory of her dream what so ever, when her daughter answered for her.

"She's fine. Mommy does this every once in a while. As long as she wakes up she's fine."

Leara realized that she must have been dreaming again. She let out a deep sigh "What was I saying this time."

"You were not talking, you were screaming" Sasori said.

Leara looked at this "Sasori". she knew who he was, but had never really met him. He had been a partner with her old sensei. Pain surged again through her. _"Yup, he's really close…Shit" _

Sasori continued "You were screaming for you mom."

Leara's muscles tensed… Her momma… _"Blood, blood, everywhere."_ _The cold path way, and the blood, her mother's body…_ She gave her head a little shake. She was to old for her to be doing this.

She was just about to walk forward, when the subway gave an immediate stop.

Karinai toppled forward. Sasori caught her in his arms, not cause he wanted to, but for the sake of keeping his own balance. They both looked to find that Hidan and Leara had collided. They were both on the floor, Hidan was on top of Leara.

Leara again took in a deep sigh. "Being a little forward aren't we?"

Hidan replied quite simply, with "Most Jashinist's are" He rearranged his weight on top of her. "You have to admit…" He smirked lightly "It is quite comfortable…"

Leara felt a little blush creep up, but she was able to hide it. "Get off…NOW." _"You pervy Jashinist!" _

They both got up. Sasori who was still holding on to Karinai let go. Karinai ran over to her mother. "What was that?" she asked in a mousy tone.

"Ya, what the fuck was that" Hidan said.

"By the looks of it…" Sasori began, looking at the small portable clock on the dash board. It read 3:32 am. "Kabuto's arrived." He finished as he made his way to the door which they had entered from. Hidan and Karinai followed, and finally Leara.

The surge of pain had now gone to throbbing. The flesh on her neck was now pulsing. _"And by the pain that I'm feeling now, so is Orochimaru-sensei"_


	8. Chapter 8

**FINALLY I got this chapter DONE!!!!! I'm sorry it took to long, but my life is in complete kayos. My only free day of the week is Tuesday, with all the events and things in my schedule. Seriously, I'm ready to pack up my bags and find a secret portal into Naruto world! Anyways, sorry for boring you with my life's story.**

**I do not, nor will I ever, own Naruto… Unless, somehow I am a long lost relative of the creator whom I have never met, but that is very unlikely…hmm maybe I can find someway for him to adopt me, nah to much work!**

**CHAPTER 8**

The pale skin man watched, hidden by the shadows. He wore a beige smock, tied up with a large purple obi. His hair was black and lanky. His flesh was a pale as the snow. All together he looked like some form of a snake. His name was Orochimaru.

He smiled to himself. Every-thing was going according to plan. He had sent Kabuto, to lead the akatsuki right into his trap, all the while they thought they were getting information about him… Sure Kabuto had been placed under a jutsu by Sasori, his formal partner, 2 years ago in an attempt to find out more information on him. But he had seen right through the attempt, and had removed it within months of it being placed. Since then He had made sure Kabuto built up that trust between the Akatsuki, that he was a loyal servant. Now was the time to fully attack.

The plan was Kabuto would meet the 2 members of Akatsuki in the subway, feed them their so called information, and when they left one of the subways would 'accidentally' go off their track. Even if the members survived he was willing to fight. He would have to make it quick, though, seeing as a certain Sasuke didn't like to be kept waiting….

MEANWHILE… Sasori was grumbling lowly under his breath "Stupid Hidan, having to bring those 2 women into this"

Hidan had insisted that Karinai and Leara come with them just incase something happened. He, Sasori, had protested greatly and surprisingly so had Leara. But, alas, they did not succeed, and now, He and Hidan stood in front of the 2 females waiting for Kabuto to show up.

Leara hated this. She absolutely hated this. She just wanted to get her things and go. Unfortunately, Hidan and Karinai had wanted her to stay, and now she was standing behind 2 S-ranked criminals, who were waiting to gather information about her old sensei. _"This sucks" _She thought bitterly.

Hidan turned around to Leara and gave a curt nod. Leara nodded in return and pulled her daughter and herself into the shadows, so that they were unable to be seen.

All 4 of them heard the door to the subway compartment open then close. There, in front of them, appeared a man. He had grey hair, appeared to be around in his early 20's, and stood around 5 nine.

"Kabuto…" Sasori began, "You said you had some information for us…"

Kabuto smiled gently "Yes, I do."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo TIME Pass OoOoOoOo

Kabuto walked through the subways door and out into the tunnel. He looked over his shoulder to make sure no-one was following him, He, then, quickly made his over toward a darkened mass along the wall.

"Did they buy it?" Orochimaru asked in a cool tone.

"They always do." Kabuto stated.

Orochimaru smirked "Good, let's get ready." He turned and started making his way to an unoccupied subway in the corner.

"Orochimaru-samma, there's something else you should know." Kabut said, following behind.

Orochimaru continued walking, but looked over his shoulder to indicate that he was looking.

"While I was giving the information I noticed another chakra in the room."

Orochimaru stopped dead in his tracks. He turned around to face Kabuto. "Was it another member?" he asked impatiently.

Kabuto shrunk down a little, he always hated when Orochimaru did this. "No, it wasn't. B...but it seemed familiar."

"As long as it wasn't another member then it doesn't concern us." With that, Orochimaru turned around and continued walking.

Silently Kabuto followed.

"Besides…" Orochimaru said in a cool, snake like, voice. "Even if we don't kill a member of the Akatsuki, we'll at least have killed some-one."…

MEANWHILE….

Leara held tightly to her daughters hand as they made their way to the exit. She had changed out of her work uniform into a long sleeved, black and white striped dress. She had a butterfly burette holding back her bangs.

She had made sure her daughter had changed too, so she was now wearing black spandex pants with a long sleeved green dress over top. She also had a butterfly burette.

Leara had decided to leave as soon as Kabuto had left. They had said goodbye to Hidan, and Sasori, and had made their way to the exit. Leara and Karinai stepped out of the subway. Leara noted that the air had gotten quite cooler.

"_I'm glad we changed, looks like its gotten cooler" _

Leara looked down to her daughter. Karinai grasped her hand and had a blank expression. Leara knew, though, that she was bursting to ask questions. Sasori had made her promise not to say anything about the meeting, with the threat of him turning her into a puppet.

"Sweat-heart…" Leara said softly.

Karinai looked up

"You can talk."

"I know, I just don't have anything to say." Her daughter answered as they walked down the subway line. All the subways were turned off so they didn't have to worry about any danger.

The 2 females walked in silence for a few minutes, until…

"…Pork chop sandwiches…"

Leara stopped, and looked at her daughter, who continued walking. "What?"

"Pork chop sandwiches." Karinai said innocently. "I now have something to say."

Leara tried to contain her giggling, but it didn't work. She smiled at her daughter, who returned the grin and giggling, then started walking. Karinai skipped.

That's when she felt it. The worst pain she had felt so far. Then as if someone was whispering in her ear she heard a snake like voice whisper _"Bye, bye. Now you're going to die."_

She turned around to see a subway car clambering down the tracks. Not towards her, but towards…

"_Karinai!"_

"Karinai move!" She screamed. Then she bolted towards her daughter.

Karinai turned around in surprise just as her mother had jumped in front of her.

"Mommy?" she whispered.

She felt herself being thrown over to the side. She landed with a thud onto the platform. She was just about to get up before she saw a subway slam into her mother's body….

…Hidan had just stepped outside of the subway, when he had seen the car speed pass him. _"Hmm, probably nothing" _ he thought.

Sasori stood behind him. "Subways normally don't run this late." Sasori said casually.

They had both turned to walk in the opposite direction, when the screaming started.

"_That sounds like…" _ Hidan thought

"Karinai" Sasori said

They're eyes looked for one second before they bolted towards the screaming. They arrived to a screaming Karinai. She sounded like she was screaming bloody murder.

Sasori, who couldn't put up with the noise any longer, placed a hand over the child's mouth. Slowly her screaming turned down into a whimper, and then shallow breathing.

Sasori slowly removed his hand. Her face was plastered in pure terror. Her eyes were blank with expression, her lip trembled along with the rest of her body, and she had changed at least 3 shades white. Sasori couldn't help thinking: _"Holy shit, it's Orochimaru's long lost daughter" _But he quickly pushed it out of his mind.

Karinai's eyes where staring at the subway, which had crashed into a stone wall a few feet in front of them. Sasori and Hidan both looked at each other. Hidan shrugged his shoulders as if to say _"I don't know what's wrong" _

Sasori turned back to Karinai. "Karinai where's your mother?"

Karinai still faced forward, her eyes lightly flickered to indicate that she had heard.

Sasori tried again. "Karina where's Le…" His voice slowly trailed off. Sasori turned towards the mass of metal, and then to Hidan who was also looking at the subway.

"Shit no." Hidan whispered.

Hidan took a few steps toward the crashed subway. He was just about to say something when the creaking of metal was heard.

_**BAM**_

A large sheet of metal went flying through the air, over to where Hidan had been standing moments before….

… a sound of footsteps.

_Clack, clack, clack_

A figure of a young woman, was seen walking towards Hidan.

"Jesus, Mary, Jashin" Hidan remarked

"My God" Sasori muttered.

Karinai just looked straight ahead and whispered "Mommy"

**Leara's Point Of View**

"Karinai MOVE!"

I Picked up my daughter and threw her. I turned just in time to see the subways lights blazing in front of me.

I was a dear caught in the headlights.

"_Think Leara, think"_

"**What can I do, it's too late to move out of the way."**

"_You can stop it, you're strong"_

"**Not that strong, who do you think I am Tsunade?!"**

"_Then what can you use"_

"**A force field built up of my chakra"**

I relaxed my body, and became one with the chakra flowing within me. I felt it surging through my body, pulsing as if it was blood in my veins. My breaths drew calm and still.

The sound of the subway surrounded my body.

I forced my chakra towards my hands, and held them in front of my body.

The subway collided against my body. I felt like a rag doll being, as my body flew in front of the subway. I felt pain, but it wasn't like the feeling of death, so I at least knew that my chakra was holding up. I had never used this technique, only heard of it.

I felt the reality of pain shoot through me as I hit the wall. I was in between a subway and a concrete wall, and it hurt like a thousand deaths.

The chakra in my hands slowly drained out of my hands. I tried to move but it hurt too much. I didn't know how bad I looked, but one thing was sure, I smelt blood. My head pounded, and for the first time in a long time I thought I was scared. I felt my lips tremble as my cheeks became wet with tears, which mixed in with the blood.

My head was already pounding, when I heard my daughter start to scream. My body had started to turn numb, my vision blurred, and I felt tiredness come over my body.

"_I'm going to die"_

I slowly closed my eyes

"_NO! Don't do this. We can pull through. After all __**he**__always did, and probably still does. We are not weak, and if you think we are going to die then maybe we are like what he said we should do back at the academy: __**"…You lack something that everyone needs to know…hatred. Without that you're just a weak team mate, and if you're just a weak team mate what's the point of you even being part of the ANBU…"**_

That voice, from years ago, rang though my head. There was no way that I was going to do that_._

" _Even though he said I had already gained his respect years later, I'm not going to give in that I'm weak"_

Even though my body was screaming for me to stop, I collected my chakra again in my hand, as I laid it on the piece of metal that pinned me to the wall. I concentrated hard on my chakra making it smooth and thin, pulsing through my hand, and the forced all of it with shear will into my hand and through my finger tips.

I felt the metal fly away, and heard it land somewhere. I couldn't tell you where, my vision was all blurred. I started walking to where I had last heard my daughter, but before I made it I felt myself fall into total numbness as my world went black…

**NORMAL POV **__

Karinai was the first to run to her mother, then Hidan, then Sasori.

"MOMMY!" Her daughter exclaimed, as she placed 2 fingers on her mother's neck.

Sasori looked the young woman up and down. Her blonde hair was now stained with red, and resembled his hair. The dress which she had been wearing was now torn in several places, and it too was stained with blood. He still felt a chakra pulse. It was small, and insignificant, but it was still a form of life.

"She's still alive." He muttered to Hidan, who nodded in agreement.

Sasori noticed something in Hidan's eyes, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Then it hit him. Hidan was considering bringing them back with them.

"Hidan.." Sasori began "You know we can't bring outsiders to the hideout. If we did, Leader would kick our asses."

"I'll take the blame, after all I am immortal" Hidan said defensively. "And besides…" He said in a soft, yet cheeky way "We have been one member short."

Sasori sighed , how could he argue with that. They had been looking for a new member, and if Leara could survive a subway hitting her, he supposed Leader would think she had some potential… _"I'm going to get in so much shit for this"_

"Can I trust you to carry her" Sasori asked, turning to Hidan to find that he had her already in his arms.

"Karinai…" Sasori said directing his attention to the 4 year old "Do you think you can keep up with us, or do you want me to carry you?"

Karinai, looked like she was thinking before jumping into his arms. He groaned with annoyance "Of coarse." …

That night 2 men were seen running through the back allies, caring 2 females; a child who fell asleep just at the boundaries of Konoha. And a mother who was slowly losing her life minute by minute…


	9. Chapter 9

**This is a really short chapter. The reason why I'm even updating at all is due to the fact: I don't know when the next time I'll be updating is, so I figured I'd just update with what I have so far…. Sorry, I'll do my best but I'm really busy.**

**ENJOY**

It was approximately 3:02 am when Hidan and Sasori burst through the hideouts front doors, with a loud bang…

_**WHAM**_

The residing Akatsuki members: Tobi, Deidara, Zetsu, Kakuzu, Pein, and Konan, jumped up wearily from their peaceful sleeping.

Every one ran out, not at all having the decency to check what they were wearing.

Tobi was wearing bright orange PJ's (the same colour of his mask), complete with fluffy bunny slippers. His mask was slightly crooked, and his hair was slightly frizzed at the back.

Deidara wore a pair of red PJ's with the words: BOOM, BLAM, and KA-DOOM, printed in bright letters all over. His hair was a complete mess. It didn't look like he was having a bad hair day, he was a bad hair day.

Zetsu wore a pair of pj's one side was white, the other black. His black side had yet to realize what had happened, as soft snores were heard coming from it.

Kakuzu wore green pj's with money symbols all over. Pein and Konan both had matching PJ's with the Akatsuki cloud on them.

"HIDAN, SASORI! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING! IT'S, LIKE, 3:00 IN THE MORNING!..." Pein shouted. A forehead vein was pulsing, no scratch that, throbbing.

"Pein…" Konan said gently

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO BURST…."

"It's a child, un" Deidara said.

"IN LIKE TH…huh?" Pein looked in front of him to find no-one in front of him. He slowly lowered his gaze. A small girl was standing in front of him. The girl wore an expression of: _Dude, I think this guy has issues._

Konan moved forward smoothly. She looked at the little girl. She was wearing a little green dress, her hair looked like it had be in a neat pony-tail, now it was all tangled. The little girl's eyes were half open, and were heavily lidded with exhaustion.

"Hello there. What's your name?" Konan said gently.

The little girl looked at her wearily. "Hi…" she said "My name is Karinai"

Just then Sasori stepped through the entrance. He inspected the empty hole, which once had been the front door. Karinai walked over to him.

"Sasori-san, I opened the door, can I go back to sleep?"

Sasori opened his mouth to respond but before he could he felt a 4 year old fall into his arms.

Konan, Deidara, and Tobi all rushed forward to grab the child. Konan held the sleeping child, while Tobi and Deidara both looked at her.

"Will someone please tell me what is going on" Pein commanded.

"Certainly, but first we need some assistance from Kakuzu." Hidan said stepping through the door-way.

Kakuzu looked away from Karinai. _"What are they doing here?"_ he asked himself. That was before he saw Leara. _"Good God!"_

Leara's body laid limp in his former partner's arms. Blood covered her once blonde hair, while even more blood stained her dress.

"Who is that, un?" A voice said disrupting Kakuzu's thoughts.

"She's really pretty" Tobi said in a cute tone.

Hidan turned to Pein who had a look of disbelief. "I told you we were telling the truth. But we'll talk about this later… Kakuzu I will pay you 20$ to save Leara"

At hearing the word 'money' Kakuzu's attention doubled. "Well…" he began in an '_I don't know' _tone.

Hidan glared at Kakuzu. "20 buck Canadian."

"SOLD!"

Kakuzu motioned Hidan to follow him to the small medic ward. Konan, who was still holding Karinai, beckoned the remaining men to the living room where she sat down on one end of the black couch, and readjusted Karinai so that she was holding her 'bridal style'.

"Will someone please tell me what is going on here?" Pein sighed sitting down beside Konan.

"Well…" Sasori began "It's sort of a long story.


	10. Chapter 10

**HELLO EVERYONE!!!! SORRY I HAVEN'T UPDATED FOR A WHILE hehehe…sorry. I JUST WANTED TO POST UP THIS CHAPTER BEFOR HOLIDAYS… ps: ****HerMemoriesErased, there is a response to your question at the end of this chapter….WARNING it contains spoilers…do not read if the bold lettering at the bottom of the chapter if you don't want to! **

**Anyway… on with the story.**

**I do not own Naruto…yet… ****evil laughter******

…… Pein sat on the couch a look of disbelief on his face.

"Wow" was all he could say.

Tobi had fallen back asleep, cross legged, on the floor. Konan was still holding the sleeping child. Deidara was in a fetus position holding a pillow, and was looking like he was watching a really interesting drama program on the TV.

Hidan and Kakuzu walked into the room.

"Well I've done the best I can do." Kakuzu began "I'm surprised that she was able to survive this long. Physically her body was practically dead. It took me a good 15 minutes to find a pulse, and the damage wasn't totally horrible but bad enough. She's stable though."

It was almost as if the whole room sighed with relief.

"Is she awake?" Konan asked.

"No, she should be in a few days" Kakuzu replied

"Well, in that case…" Pein began as he got up. "I want her gone as soon as she relieves consciousness." He said sternly.

"Pein you can't possibly…" Konan started, but was silenced by her comrade holding up a finger to silence her.

"I can, and I am"

"Please leader, un" Deidara pleaded.

"No."

"You said yourself that you wanted a replacement for Orochimaru." Sasori said.

"No, I said that I didn't want what happened between Orochimaru and Itachi to happen again. That didn't mean I was looking for a replacement, and even if I did, there is no way that I would trust a woman." Pein said, but after a quick look at Konan quickly added "For all we know she could be exactly like Orochimaru except for a fetish for little girls!"

"She has her own child! I highly doubt that she would be a pedophile if she has a child." Konan said.

"Besides…" Zetsu's white said, scaring every one to death (this was his first time entering the conversation.) "She doesn't seem pale, and snake like, at all…" His black side confirmed.

"She can't stay." Pein said through clenched teeth.

"She's strong, and very skilled" Hidan said, in a bribing tone.

"Ya, and intelligent. She used a very powerful jutsu which was very strong in chakra." Kakuzu said. "In fact her chakra was so strong I could even feel it." He added.

Hidan, Konan, and Sasori looked at Kakuzu. They all knew what he was trying to do. He was trying to convince Leader that there might be a slight possibility that Leara could be a jinkurichi. Of course Kakuzu knew that Leara couldn't be one, but Leader didn't necessarily know….

The last statement seemed to have caught Pein's attention. He raised an eyebrow. "Do you really think so…."

"ABSOLUTILY" Kakuzu said, just a little too enthusiastically.

"What kind of idiot do you think I am?" Pein said coolly.

Everybody sighed and looked down. They knew it, they were beat…

"That being said…" Everyone looked up. "If she is as strong as you say she is, she may have some use." Pein said before turning to leave.

As he walked out of the living area everyone smiled with relief. The one who was smiling the most was Konan. _"Finally, another woman!" __**"You know, it might turn out that Pein doesn't like her. Meaning she would have to leave**_**" **Konan frowned before thinking_ "…Shut up" _Then she too headed off to bed, still carrying the child in her arms.

The guys all started for their rooms, none of them bothering to wake up Tobi…

OoOoOoOoOoOo TiMe PaSsOoOoOoOoO

4 days had passed since the arrival of Karinai, and her mother. Leara was still under, but was doing fairly well with the healing process. Her breathing had become more stable, and her face that had once be bashed and bloodied was now resembling her once godlike features.

"Karinai…." Konan softly said, walking down the corridor.

Silence

"Karinai, this isn't funny where are you?" Konan said._ "Great…" _she thought _"you've lost her."_

She had tried to keep Karinai entertained, and it had worked for the first 3 days, but unfortunately today was different. Karinai had been the perfect little angel; she listened and did what she was told, and was very curious, too curious. She had just asked to go for a tour around the hideout, and Konan had agreed. The last time she had looked, Karinai was looking around the large room filled with scrolls. The next time she looked, Karinai was no longer there.

"_This is really not good. A child lost in a house full of criminals…I HAVE TO FIND HER"_ Konan thought as she quickened her pace….

MEANWHILE…

Karinai was definitely lost.

"_We're definitely lost" _Karinai thought.

She hadn't meant to wander away from Konan-onesan, but she just couldn't help it. She saw a glimmer of light just as she was leaving the scroll room. She had just meant to look down the hall then run back to her, but she saw a hall way full of doors. She turned to ask onesan if they could go down there, but Konan was no longer seen.

As Karinai walked down the hallway, she slowly cursed to herself: "Hackn' frackn' barbeque pits!" She was starting to really get scared.

She was just about to turn around when she saw that a door to her left was slightly ajar. Without thinking she walked straight in. The room was fairly large, and resembled an apartment. The room appeared to be a sitting area, off to the corner was a small desk filled with papers. There were various chairs, and a fair sized TV, but what intrigued Karinai the most was the small picture hanging just above the TV. They were a pair of eyes, but not normal eyes, or even the eyes that she had seen her mother have. No, these eyes were hypnotizing, they had ripples in them. They stared right into Karinai's eyes. For a moment she was scared. Subconsciously she started humming and mumbling a tune which she had once heard.

"Be careful what you do.  
Cause God is watching your every move.  
Hold my hand in the dark street.  
For if you do,  
I know that I'll always be safe.  
Even if I'm far away and alone,  
I can be sure that you'll find me there..."

Karinai didn't notice the man who walked into the room behind her. At first he looked enraged, but his expression slowly relaxed and softened. He stood behind her, listening. His rippled patterned eyes watching her.

"…Then you'd come to me and tell me again.  
Yes, you'd tell me once again.  
Then what happens when I know it all,  
Then what should I do after that,  
what then?"

Karinai finished. She felt a hand place on her shoulder. It caught her by surprise and she turned around, giving a strong punch…

Pein hadn't expected a punch to the stomach. What was even more surprising was the power, which made him back up a few inches then fall over with an oaf.

Karinai froze immediately as she saw the figure get up. Not because she had hit a stranger, but at the appearance of his eyes they were exactly the same as the ones in the picture. She also realized that this was the man who had been yelling the night that she had arrived. Not knowing what to do, she ran behind one of the chairs right beside her, and right in front of the man.

The man peered over the chair looking down at her. She did the first thing that her mother had always taught her to do if she ever got in to trouble. She gave a shy, cute, smile.

Pein gave an annoyed look before walking away and sitting at the desk in the corner. Shyly Karinai slinked over, and peered over the ledge of the table. The man appeared to be writing on some paper.

"That's it?" she shyly asked

Pein stopped "That's what?"

"I don't get into trouble?"

Pein raised an eyebrow "Were you expecting to" His rippled eyes staring into hers.

"Well… sort of, I mean, I'm not supposed to hit anyone. Momma says…" Kainai raised her index finger "…Never to hit anyone unless it is an absolute situation, and I have no other way of attacking" She though for an moment "Yup, that's what she said"

The leader gave an exasperated sigh then went back to writing. Karinai didn't budge. She just looked at him with interest. 5 minutes passed…silence…Pein looked in front of him to find that there were no longer two blue eyes looking up at him.

"Hi, I'm Karinai."

Pein almost about fell out of his chair, and had a heart attack. The girl "Karinai" was now at his left side. _"When the heck did she move?"_

"Uh, I'm Pein" He said in a flustered voice. After a few minutes of silence, he went back to writing.

"Are you writing a story" Karinai said, and she clambered up onto "Pein's" lap

Pein looked completely flustered. Here was this toddler, whom he hadn't even met, sitting on his lap wanting to know if he was writing a story. This whole situation seemed all too unreal; after all he was the leader of a secret organization of S-ranked criminals. He was supposed to scare kids, not have them ask if he's writing a story. Yet, here was this little girl, not scared, not upset, and just…happy. That's what astounded him, no child should act like that…unless…Unless someone had planed the whole thing out. Pein once again resumed his cool expression. He got up, not noticing that Karinai slid off him. He began walking around the room, looking all around.

"Ok, the jig is up. You all can come out now"

…Silence…

"Don't think I don't know what's going on here." He said in a serious tone.

…again, silence…

A small head peeked out from behind him. "Umm, who are you talking to?" Karinai asked. _"Is this man insane"_ she thought.

Pein twirled around and kneeled to the girl's height. "I know, that you know, that one of the inhabitants of this hideout sent you here to try and soften me up so I would allow you and your mother stay. So tell me, who put you up to this, Konan, Hidan, Tobi."

The 4 year old looked the man straight in the eyes and said "Have you been hanging out in the sun to much?"

When Pein didn't respond Karinai smiled. "You're funny" she said, grabbing Pein's left hand with both of hers. "I don't know who you were talking to, but no-one lead me here" She said leading him over to the desk once again, and sitting him down in the chair, before resuming her place on his lap.

Karinai looked at the papers on the desk. They were all written in different hand writing. She couldn't understand what any of the papers meant, because the mainly looked like reports. "This isn't a story…" Karinai said in disappointment.

"No they aren't they're reports from my workers, so I can make sure they are doing what they're told." Pein said looking over the child's shoulder. He didn't have time for this. He managed to wrap his arms around the little girl's body and once again began writing. For a few minutes all was silent, but Karinai began to hum the same tune as she had done before. Pein stopped "Why did you start singing that song?" he asked in a curious tone.

Karinai looked up. "I don't know."

…Dead Silence…

….followed by Awkward Silence…

Karinai looked up "Can you tell me any stories?"

Pein looked her in the eye "I don't know any stories" This was partially true. He did know some stories but they weren't quite right for her age.

"How about a song, you have to know a song." Karinai pleaded

Pein look at her with a complete blank stare.

The little child gave an exasperated sigh "Come on…" she urged sliding off his lap and pulling him up out of his chair. "How about: Akahana no Tonakai (Rudolph the red nose reindeer)

"Well… err…"

"Makka na o-hana no tonakai-san wa

Itsumo minna no waraimono

Demo sono toshi no kurisumasu no hi

Santa no o-ji-san wa iimashita

: Kurai yomichi wa pikapika no

Omae no hana ga yaku ni tatsu no sa

Itsumo naiteta tonakai-san wa

Koyoi koso wa to yorokobimashita" Karinai ended with a big smile, but it quickly faded away. "You didn't sing."

Pein opened his mouth to protest about singing, but Karinai beat him to it. "I know why, you don't know the words! Here let me show you!" She said excitedly, bringing him over to sit back down on the chair, before she too sat back on his lap, this time she sat facing him. Pein had the strangest feeling that he was being herded like an animal.

"Now, repeat after me." Karinai said as if talking to a 2 year old. "Makka na o-hanna no…"

There was no way that the leader of a secret organization would be seen singing Christmas carols. That had just crossed the line. But…alas… Karinai looked at him with cute little 4 year old eyes, and he just couldn't deny.

He let out a deep sigh _"Will this madness never end…" _"Makka na o-hanna no"

…….

OoOoOoOoOoOoOTime PassOoOoOoOoOoOoO

1 hour later

Konan still was searching for Karinai. She had asked almost everybody if they had seen her, but no luck. She was just making her way to ask her partner when a scream was heard. Not just any scream, but a child's scream.

"Karinai!" the bluette screamed. She noted that the scream had come from the direction that she was coming from. She felt a tap on her shoulder, before she could move, almost causing her to have a heart attack. Behind her Tobi and an angry looking Deidara.

"Tobi heard a scream, so Tobi grabbed Deidara-sempi to go investigate."

Konan turned back around, only to have another near heart attack. Now in front of her were the remaining inhabitants: Hidan, Kakuzu, Sasori, and even Zetsu.

"We heard a scream…" Zetsu's white half said. "We came to see what happened…" his black side finished.

"Karinai's missing, and I was looking for her, and then I heard a scream while I was walking to…" She stopped in mid-sentence. "Pein" she whispered.

"Oh shit" Hidan concluded

"Leader-samma's gonna be mad…" Tobi said in a sheepish tone.

"That's not unless he's already gotten to her." Konan said in audible. She knew what Pein liked and disliked. For instance she knew that he like ice-cream, but not yogurt. dark chocolate, but not white. And if Konan was sure of one thing he did not like it was kids. Of all the things Pein was, a child person he wasn't.

Konan broke into a run down the hall where the scream had come from. She was followed by the rest of the Akatsuki gang. They all stopped, or I should say collided, in front of Leader-samma's door.

"Should we knock?" Deidara asked peeking out from behind Konan.

"Wouldn't hurt…" Sasori said, raising his hand to knock on the door. Another scream was heard. And instead of knocking down the door the busted the door down.

What those members all saw that day was something they had never thought to have seen in all of their life time… "Oh my Jashin" Was all Hidan could say. The rest just all stood in shock.

Karinai was on Pein's back. Pein was galloping around the room. In short: Pein was giving Kainai a piggy back ride, but that's not what surprised the most. The thing that really made their jaws drop was the fact that they both were sing Rudolph the red nose reindeer, while galloping around the room. The two of them didn't even notice that the door had been busted down until Kakuzu coughed.

Pein immediately stopped dead in his tracks. He looked straight at his comrades before stating "What? Haven't you ever heard Christmas songs before."

**Such a corny ending for this chapter…..I'M SORRY IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT!!! Here is also a response to ** **HerMemoriesErased. ****BEWARE SPOILER ALERT FOR THE STORY….DO NOT READ ON IF YOU DON'T WANT TO!!!!! **Response: yes Itachi is the father. **THER I SAID IT! PLEASE DON'T STOP READING! IF YOU THINK I RUINED IT, I HAVEN'T! MERRY HOLIDAYS!!!**


	11. Chapter 11

It had been 2 weeks, 2 days, 10 hours, 12 minutes, and 30 seconds since Leara had been placed within the Akatsuki's medical ward.

She was now looking like a young woman should; her broken bones were healing, her scrapes and cuts had healed and were now replaced with multi-coloured bruses. The only thing that wasn't back to normal was her blonde hair. It was still dyed with blood making her appear to be a blonde with poorly done red streaks.

Pein and Konan sat watching the small camera screen now located on his office's desk. He watched as Kakuzu entered the medical ward followed by Leara's daughter, Karinai. The small girl pulled a chair from the corner of the room and placed it beside her mother she tried to climb up onto it, unfortunately it didn't work. She went up to Kakuzu and stretched out her arms. He did what looked like a sigh, before picking him up and placing her on the chair. Beside him, Pein heard Konan let out a little giggle. The leader watched as his employee grabbed a clipboard and went to investigate the numerous screens and monitors within the small room. Karinai just sat as a statue beside her mother. When Kakuzu was done examining the monitors he went over to get Karinai. When she didn't move, Kakuzu made his way to the door and left.

"I wonder what she's thinking?" Konan asked with a whisper.

Pein averted his eyes away from the screen and applied his attention to his friend. "I don't know I'm surprised she even knows what's going on right now. Normally girls her age…"

"Pein" Konan said with a slight smile tugging at her lips, her voice serious "Don't forget what we knew when we were young."

Pein sighed "But that was different. We grew up in a time of war."

"And she's grown up with no clear home, and a parent which the world has not yet accepted." Konan replied.

Konan took his hand. The man with many piercings looked onto his friends eyes. They were soft and warming.

Before the moment could last a knock was heard at the door. Konan let go of his hand and resumed her gaze at the screen.

"Come in"

Kakuzu entered, still holding the clipboard.

"Any improvement." Konan asked.

"No not really. Using medical jutsu her bones are completely healed. Her heart beat i3 80 over 112, no excessive bleeding is being caused. She's in perfect working order, only she isn't awake." He said with defeat.

"You mean she's in a coma." Konan stated blankly.

"So it would seem."

"What's up with Karinai." Pein said

"She's just worried. She was muttering something when I left. I think it was a prayer."

"Hmm"

_SILENCE… AKWARD SILENCE_

Tobi burst through the door. "LEADER, LEADER, LEADER! Itachi and Kisame are back!!!"

"Good, let's go down and see what they accomplished." Pein said before turning back to the screen, where Karinai still sat, and turned it off.

…MEANWHILE…

Leara vaguely remembered this place. The location which she was standing was of a bright green field lined with cherry blossom trees, and rows upon rows of stones….

"Stones?" Leara whispered, bending down to inspect on of them. "Tomb-stones" she confirmed as she looked closer. She stood back up, wondering how she had even gotten here. All that she remembered were speeding lights, screaming, pain, more screaming, then darkness.

It was like it was a bad dream.

The young woman stood there. There was something, something about this place that was so familiar. The location was on the tip of her tongue, but there was only one word that would come out.

"Momma"

Leara's eyes shot wide with shock. It finally registered in her mind why this place was so familiar. This was where she had last seen her mother's face.

It was her mother's grave.

"Momma" She mouthed, but was surprised to have young voice speak.

Leara spun around, only to see what she had forgotten. There, only steps away, a young girl with shoulder length blonde hair stood before a grave. She wore a white cotton sun dress, with no shoes.

Leara began to breathe hard "that's…me" was all she managed to say.

She began cautiously walking toward her younger self.

She got all the way to her former self. She stood behind the child, peering over her shoulder. Leara saw her mother's name carved into the new stone. Her heart skipped a beat and she began to feel all the feelings which she had suppressed for so many years.

Young Leara collapsed to her knees, and she to began to breathe heavily. She brought her tiny hands together, bowed her head and started whispering.

Leara looked at her former self, she remembered everything again. How they never did find the one responsible for her mother's death. How her father had started acted funny. How he would threaten her when she didn't do as she was told. No one in her family would talk to her unless it was when she did something wrong, then it was more yelling then anything else.

"Leara!" a voice shouted

The older version of her self turned, but her younger self remained in prayer.

A middle aged man with dirty blonde hair was storming through the rows of tombs. In front of him were an identical teen boy and girl.

"I told you she would be here." The boy hissed back to the man, coming to stand behind the two Leara's.

"Leara!" The man boomed coming to stand beside the teen boy. "What have I told you about coming home after ninja school." He said in a stern tone.

Her younger self said nothing.

"Are you listening to me young lady?!" Her father said kneeling down to the child's height.

Leara's former self turned to face her dad, head still bent. "Yes, I'm supposed to come home without talking to anyone." she mumbled.

Her father let out an exasperated sigh getting up. "Get up" he ordered, waited before grabbing the child's arm and yanking her up. "Now!" he said dragging her once again throughout the rows of tombs which he had entered from, before being followed by her brother and sister.

Leara watched with pain, wanting nothing more then to scream. But, she held back her emotion and just collapsed on her knees in front of her mother's tomb. She ran her finger along the name lightly tracing it with her fingers.

"What's happening" she whispered.

The feeling like the ground was falling from beneath her occurred and before she could gasp in shock all was gone. No tombs, no trees, no green grass. Instead she was standing in a rather poorly lit room.

The room had many shelves that held many containers, which were home to many strange looking objects. In the far corner she caught her reflection in a mirror. She stared in shock again staring at her past self. Who stood slightly behind her.

Her hair was now longer, protruding down to the middle of her back. She Wore a Konoha head-band on her forehead, which had a deep slash down the middle. She had on a tight fishnet long sleeved shirt with a black sleeve-less one over top that stopped just short of her belly button. On her legs she had black spandex going down to her lower thigh with a dark navy blue dance shorts over top. Around her she wore a simple black cloak, to keep the chill off.

"I can't believe I dressed like this" she mumbled looking at her former teen self.

She again looked around the dim room.

"_Why does this place look so familiar." _

Voices were heard in the other room, which caught her attention. "Please, you must take her, she has no where else to go." A smooth masculine voice said, quietly.

A shooting pain erupted through her blouse around the neck. _"Crap, now I know this place."_ Her voice hissed to her.

"You know, normally I wouldn't do these kinds of favors…" a cold voice responded "But, seeing as you seem like the kind of person I can like, I am willing to take her. But first, I want to see how really strong she is."

Footsteps were heard on the floor coming closer to both Leara and her teen self. Both stared at the doorway. The teen was emotionless, while the adult's eyes were wide with fear.

In the doorway appeared a man. His skin was as white as snow, his hair was black and lanky, and he wore a black cloak with red clouds.

It may have been the first time her teen self had seen this man, but it wasn't for the older Leara. It was a man who had taken her in. The man who had taught her to use her power to the full extent. The man who made her work to get him the things he wanted in life.

The man who had tortured her for information for days, wanting to know the father…

It was her old sensei, Orochimaru.

Leara watched as He walked, no more like glided, over to her teen self. He took her chin in his pale hands. Leara wanted nothing more than to rip his hand off of herself. Still, she remained where she stood just watching.

Orochimaru turned Leara's face side to side before letting it go, walking over to a shelf, grabbing something that appeared to be a helmet, and returning only to place it on the teen's head. He then walked to a small desk and pulled out a small prescription bottle.

"Do you know what this is" He asked lightly.

"Well" The teen began "I'm guessing that this contraption is someway to measure my chakra level." Leara's young voice was confident, yet shy, if that's even possible.

Leara watched as Orochimaru smiled to her younger self. "He was right, you are a smart one. You're right, this contraption will measure your ability to withstand chakra, your own chakra, to be exact. And these…" He said shaking the pill bottle "are what is going to release your chakra." He grabbed the teen's right hand and placed a small orange pill into it before pushing it back to ward her.

Hesitantly, Leara's younger self swallowed the pill. A purple aura surrounded Leara's teen self, before changing to a crimson red. The aura started to expand, but as soon as it had begun it started to disappear. The helmet slightly rattled as it absorbed the chakra level before returning to normal.

The whole process took 5 minutes. When it was over the teen looked slightly tipsy as if drunk. Orochimaru looked thoughtful before returning to the doorway.

"I'll take her." Was all he said before walking back out, this time being followed by another who wore the same konoha symbol on his forehead.

Both Leara's looked back at him as the began to leave the room. "Wait!" The teen exclaimed "Where are you going." She silently said staring at the male teen who wore the Konaha symbol. Their eyes locked for a brief second.

Leara watched Orochimaru make a slight jerk of his head, and the next thing she knew he was sinking his teeth into her young self's flesh.

She watched as he came off of her. She watched herself gasp for air before collapsing to the ground, only to realize that she too had done the same. The pain she felt was to painful to bear. She watched as the male teen ran to her former self. She saw him say something that was muted, before being pulled up by Orochimaru and pushed out the door.

Tears stained her cheeks, and she felt the pain paralyze her entire body. She could no longer hold it in she started it. At first it was low, but gradually it got louder, and louder. Before all her vision went black, and back in the Akatsuki medical ward Leara broke out of her coma screaming in agony.

MEANWHILE (taking place during the last scene)

Pein and Konan walked into the small room, where the rest of the Akatsuki members sat at a round table. They took their places at the table before beginning.

"Well, let's hear it" Pein said in a professional tone.

"Certainly." Itachi said in a calm voice his eyes crimson red. "As you know, our objective was to find information on the nine tailed fox. The mission was to only see how strong he had gotten, and not to physically make our presence known."

"The result" Kisame picked up from where his partner left off. "is that the fox-child is now able to harness the demon fox's chakra and use it to his advantage before losing it and going totally psycho."

"Which, posses a problem for us." concluded Itachi.

Deidara leaned over beside Sasori. "Don't you find it creepy how they can finish each other's sentences?" He whispered, not noticing the orange mask coming between Deidara and Sasori.

"What did Sempai say?!" yelled Tobi, causing Deidara to almost fall out of his chair. Sasori, all the while, just shook his head as if to say: Why me?

Leader cleared his throat, meaning to get back on topic. "Well, that does pose a problem for us, but we can worry about it later. In the past few weeks that you have been gone…" he said slowing his pace "…some very interesting events have occurred." He concluded using his words carefully.

"Heh, I think it's a bit more than interesting." Hidan gloated smirking.

Itachi and Kisame side looked at each other from where they sat. Last time Leader said something interesting had happened, they ended up having to sleep outside in a tent, but that's a whole other conversation.

"We have had some visitors for the past few weeks…" Konan lightly said.

Kisame glared around the room opening his mouth slightly, his sharp teeth clenched together tightly. "If you think I'm spending another weekend out in a tent, your wrong." He growled, causing Tobi to cower behind Deidara, who tried to get Tobi off from grabbing his hair with much failure. Itachi just stared silently, his crimson eyes piercing anything they touched.

"No-body will need to sleep in a tent." Leader confirmed. "What we mean to say is that we have 2 new inhabitants in the lair. 2 females to be exact. The only problem is that one is a…"

Pein was cut short of his sentence when Karinai ran into the room.


	12. Chapter 12

**Okay, I know I haven't updated for a LLLLLOOOOONNNNNGGGG time. And I know this chapter is really short. But please do not burn me for this… I have been really busy. (I do have a life… I know can u believe it!)**

**Here are my reasons why I haven't posted.:**

**I was in the school play. (I was one of the main parts so that took up a lot of time)**

**I'm going to Halifax with my choir from school for a competition at the end of april. And will be performing in our theatre a week before that**

**I have also been taking Japanese lessons on Thursday nights**

**I am also preparing costumes for Anime North (Can't wait!!!!!)**

**On top of that I have homework and all these assignments.**

**Combine all of these things, and you get one busy life… So, if I don't update soon, I am sorry. I'm letting you know this so you don't think the story is over. It isn't over, till I say it over! **

**Enjoy…**

_Do I look like I own Naruto?_

Karinai wasn't thinking when she burst in the room filled with S-ranked criminals. All she was thinking about was what had just happened…

There she was, sitting beside her mother. Her head slightly bent, her delicate lips lightly moving, barely audible.

She was praying to Jashin. Even though her mother had never told her about the religion in full detail Cam, on the other hand, had told everything there was to know about the religion, finding that it was less annoying then playing the game goldfish for hours on end. On top of that when Cam had no stories about the 'wonderful' religion, he always had a stash full of books which he would read to her, seeing as she couldn't understand half of the words written on paper.

Karinai remembered one of the many talks she and Cam had discussed.

"**Karinai, listen to me" Cam said pulling the child up onto his lap. "If ever something happens to you, or your mother, pray. Even if you think it won't make a difference. Pray to Jashin-Samma, for he will listen."**

"**but…I thought the key concept to Jashinism was killing. Why should I pray to someone who is all about killing." Karinai's eyes widened "Unless, he thinks that he should kill the person. **_**I don't want my loved ones to die**_**!**" **she concluded shaking her head no.**

**Cam sighed, lifting Karinai up onto his right knee. "It's true that the key concept of Jashinism is carnage. But, with that being said, he will reward and heal those who need it." He said in a softer tone….**

Karinai was praying one of the many prayers Cam had taught her. This particular prayer, as Cam had said, was for healing of the loved who are in suffering, the _"Kandio meriac"_ as jashinist said. When translated it went something like:

"_Come to me oh spirit of grace and power_

_Let you grant us to use your power to heal those dear to us_

_May our loved one's find you strength_

_And feed off of it_

_In order to become whole in body and spirit"_

It was the fith time Karinai had been saying the prayer. She paused and raised her head slightly. A few strands of hair fell between her eyes, blocking her view. She didn't make any effort to move them she knew what was before her. Her momma lied peacefully on the bed in front of her; eyes closed, hands folded over her stomach, lying in a straight line. It was the same position she had been in for the past 2 weeks.

"Please momma, you have to live." Karinai whispered, before returning to her prayer. "_Come to me oh spirit of grace and power_

_Let you grant us to use your power to heal those dear to us_

_May our loved one's…_

"mmmhmmm…"

Karinai looked up once more. She hadn't made that noise. She waited for one, two, three minutes before resuming.

"…_find you strength_

_And feed off of it_

_In order to become…"_

"mmmmmhm"

Kairinai paused again, she had definitley heard something. _"whole in body and spirit" _she quickly finished, only to fall out of her chair when her mother awoke screaming bloody murder.

Like a bat out of hell, she ran out of that room.


	13. Chapter 13

**HERE'S JONNY!**

**My cat: Ummm, ur name's not Jonny**

**Me: umm, well I… HEY, cats aren't supposed to talk!**

**Cat: Meow?**

**Me: WOW**

**Anyway, yes I know I'm sounding a bit crazy right now, but I'm so happy. I finally had enough time to sit down and write this! I know it's short, but since summer is here I'm gonna be writing a lot more. SO, WITHOUT FURTHER ADU CHAPTER 12. **

**On the last chapter of True Love and a Child:**

_Kairinai paused again, she had definitley heard something. "whole in body and spirit" she quickly finished, only to fall out of her chair when her mother awoke screaming bloody murder. _

_Like a bat out of hell, she ran out of that room. _

**Now, on with the actual Chapter! :**

And this is where we last left off; a little girl standing in the door way in front of 9 criminals.

"…little girl" Pein finished, although no-one heard him. If they did, they sure as hell didn't show it. Every one was silent, and looked at the reaction of Itachi and Kisame.

Itachi remained in his emotion-less face, though some swore that they saw the ends of his mouth twitch.

Kisame on the other hand… "She's so ADORABLE!" he exclaimed. Everyone (Minus Itachi) looked at Kisame in disbelief.

Only Itachi knew the truth about Kisame. The other members knew a little, but not the whole truth. They knew that he was terribly self conscious about the way he looked. I mean let's face it he wasn't the most 'normal' person to meet. It was this fact that people never liked to build a strong relationship with him. All Kisame had ever wanted was for a loving child, but due to the fact he was 'different' he had never gotten the chance. Kisame had only told this to Itachi, his partner, because he felt a strong friendship between them… "

_NOT IN THE YAOI TYPE OF WAY._ _Perverted fan-girls_" Mumbled Itachi

Karinai looked dazed for a moment at the blue stranger. _"Is he a lost member of the blue man group_" "**I don't know…maybe we should ask him" **_**"Umm hello what about Mamma" **_**"Oh…right" ** She ran past the blue man. As she ran she caught a glimps of who was sitting beside him, another stranger, and up to Pein.

The pierced man looked at her, annoyed. "Karinai, this isn't the time for your games." he said in a strong tone, before turning back to the group. He opened his mouth to continue with what he was about to say, but was interrupted by having a little girl grabbing and shaking his arm off. Pein just ignored her. "Anyway, as I was saying…" He was again cut short, this time by Karinai jumping on his lap, blocking his view, all the while pulling on his cloak. "Ugh! karinai what is it?" he finally said.

Karinai looked leader straight in the eye, and said. "My momma's woken…"

She was cut short by a large crash coming some where from within the layer.

"…up"

"Oh. well…" Pein said, before going silent. Everyone looked around at one another. Kisame and Itachi looked at each other; Kisame mouthing the words: "what's going on?" Itachi responded with a shrug of the shoulders.

Then all of a sudden all the members jumped out of their seats, and ran to the door practically smothering each other in the process; Pein running with Karinai in his arms, bridal style. Well, everyone except for Kisame and Itachi, who stood in their places, looking where their fellow companions had just run off to, mouths slightly open. The looked at each other, mouths still open.

What had they missed while they had been away? Was this the same s-ranked criminal organization that they had joined, or had the members of the Akatsuki been replaced by cheery robots?

"Itachi" Kisame whispered "I'm scared."

"Ya, I know what you mean. But, I suppose we should deal with it. I mean if 2 females have been living here…"

"Konan-chan lives here to." Kisame reminded his partner.

"I know, but three women in the hide out is 2 too many. Let alone, a child." Although the last comment was not shouted, Kisame heard the urgent seriousness in his voice.

It wasn't that Itachi hated kids, after all he, himself, had to put up with his younger brother for several years. What it was, was the fact that this was a serious organization, not the baby-sitting club; which I might add was one of his little brother's favorite book series as a toddler.

This memory of his brother sitting on their mother's lap, listening to her intently, made him smirk ever so slightly. The smirk, however, quickly faded when Kisame stated that they should go see the commotion. Itachi responded with a curt nod, and together the blue man and Uchiha went after their, at least they hoped they were, fellow members.


	14. Chapter 14

**OK, I know this is a really late update, but my summer , let's just say, hasn't been the most relaxing.**

**I originally had this done around the second last week of July, so I could post it up as a Happy one year anniversary. Unfortunately, when I went to go post it up, I re-read it and found that it was absolutely horrible. So I had to delete at least 6 pages, and re-write everything… this isn't the full chapter, but I though since I'm re-writing it, it would be best to post what I have up.**

**Hope you enjoy it, and if it's not that good, well, trust me the last copy which I had was much worse! **

Meanwhile, Leara was still trying to figure out where she was. Her face was stained with tears; throat hurting from waking up screaming. She was no longer lying on the cot which she had woken up in, but by the door.

…Upon finding out the door was locked, she had tried desperately to break it down. With no luck, the blonde turned her back to the door and slid to the floor, before placing her head in between her legs…

"Oh God, where am I?" was all she could whisper, her voice shaky and hoarse. She took a look at her arms, a saw stitching running up and down each arm. She ran her index finger up one of them. Then it came back to her; the subway, her pinned to a wall, the darkness, her memories especially her last memory, which had caused her to wake up. _"That still doesn't help me to find out where I am" _

She had to think, that's whet she had to do. She lightly lifted her head, and rested it against the door. The problem was it felt so hard to think. Her thoughts were bombarding her, questions flowing through her mind.

"_What is going on here…?"  
"…Where am I?..."_

"…_Am I in a hospital?..."_

"….Karinai…"

Leara's eyes flew open. Karinai, what had happened to her little girl, her only child? Feeling a sudden burst of adrenaline, she got up again, faced the door, brought back her fist, and once more tried to break down the door. All she ended getting for her effort was a sore hand.

"Shit" she muttered, turning away. Something in the corner caught her eye. She walked to the far corner of the room. There sitting on a small stool, perfectly folded, was a pair of clothes. On top sat a folded origami flower, and a letter. She held the letter up to her, and immediately recognized the writing, and grammar mistakes, to be her daughters.

"_Deer mommy,_

_I hoop you get well soon. Sester Konan has bean watching me. I loov you,_

_Karinai." _

Leara read the second last line out loud. "Sister Konan has been watching me. Who's konan?" She placed the letter back down in its place and looked at the flower, a thought crossing her mind. "Not that Konan. Could it be?" She had heard of Konan before. Known as the angel of god, she was the only female member of Akatsuki. Leara looked at the flower once again. Konan was also supposed to have the ability to create origami.

"At least I know have an idea of were I am." Leara sighed. Before picking up the clothes, looking around the room making sure no one was in the room. Hesitantly she removed the white gown she had been in, and got dressed in the clothes that had been laid out for her: a blue tank top, black baggy track pants, and a clean pair of underwear.

Surprisingly the clothes fit her pretty well. The tank top was a bit lose, but leara wasn't about to complain. She picked up the white gown from the floor, and placed it on the cot, before hearing approaching footsteps.

_Click_ She heard the door unlock.

Not knowing what to do, she got in a defensive stance. The door opened, and Leara side kicked the person in the door.

"Ugh…" _Clunk._ Leara opened her eyes to see a blonde man; at least she thought it was a man, on the floor in front of her.

Leara opened her mouth to apologize, before she heard the words, she had so longed to hear: "MOMMY!"

The blonde mother looked up to see her daughter running towards her. Karinai ran up, and the mother and daughter embraced, only for a moment, before a cough interrupted them. Leara looked away from her daughter, who held tightly to her mother's waist, and gazed at the group of S-ranked criminals standing in front of her.

The blonde which Leara had kicked had gotten up, and now stood behind a man with multiple piercings all around his face.

"_Pein…" _Leara had seen his face only once. It was only for a minute, if that, but never had she ever forgotten those eyes.

"Leara." said a strong masculine voice, making her pull out of her thoughts. "My name is Pein, do you know where you are?" the man said, his eyes gazing into hers.

"Yes." Was all she could say "I'm in the Akatsuki hideout, am I not?" making the last part more of a statement, then a question, all the while keeping the eye contact with Pein.

Leara knew what Pein was doing, he was testing her, seeing if she would shiver and crumple to the floor within his gaze. There was no way she was going to show she was weak. After all, she had eyes, and within her mind, they were just as powerful as his. _"Were equals Pein, and there is no way I'm going to back away." _

It was Pein who broke the contact however, before continuing. "You have created a bit of disturbance within our organization these past few weeks." The pierced man said, stepping through the door way.

Leara caught a glimpse of the rest of the members: A short, blonde, whom Leara had kicked, A man in an orange spiraled mask, A blue haired female, and A white and black creature. The rest she knew to be Hidan, Kakuzu, and Sasori. Including Pein, that brought the total count to 8.

"_There's 2 missing."_

"Normally, I would have had you destroyed the moment you opened your eyes…" Pein Continued "But, according to a few of my members, they say you are well skilled. Therefore, I am going to give you a test."

Leara looked as confused as the rest of the members, all except for Konan who wore an emotion of: _"I hope this goes well, or else…" _

Pein seemed to see the confusion within her face and explained further. "The test is quite simple; if you pass it, you are given the full time job of working with our organization. If you fail, well..." He smirked to himself

"…we will deal with you accordingly."

Leara looked around the room, "And what, might I ask, is the test?" she asked, voice emotionless. Leara felt her daughter's grasp tighten around her waist. Like her daughter, she knew she wasn't going to like what she was going to hear next.

"The test is quite simple really. All you have to do is fight one of the members that I chose. It wont be a fight to the death, but based upon you fighting, I will judge whether you're worth keeping or not."

Leara heard hidan mutter, "Damn, what an ass move.", before being hushed by Kakuzu.

"And the person whom I would like you to fight"

…Leara brought her attention back to Pein…

"Would be"

…Out of the corner of her eye she saw the final 2 members of the Akatsuki arrive…

"Uchiha, Itachi"

To say the Akastuki members weren't shocked would be a bit of an understatement. Many of the members looked to one another, the others just looked for Leara's reaction to all this. After all everyone knew about the infamous Uciha Itachi.

…He had been one of the brightest in his class, joined the ANBU in his early teens, making him the youngest man to have ever joined the ANBU. Unfortunately, that wasn't why he was placed within every bingo book known to man. The reason, however, was because of him slaughtering his entire clan, leaving his younger brother as the only 'known' Uchiha…

The S-ranked criminals waited for Leara's reaction to come, but were very disappointed. The young woman remained silent, face hard as stone, and gave a curt nod understanding what she had to do.

Pein turned to leave. None of the other members said anything; they just watched her, clearing a path for her and her daughter to walk.

As Leara stepped out of her room and into the hall, she froze, looking straight ahead. In front of her, just to her left, stood a 20, or so, year old man, with raven black hair…

"_...Uchiha, Itachi…" _ Leara thought bitterly.

The blonde woman and the raven haired man stood before each other; their eyes meeting for a split second, before Leader to Leara to follow him to the training arena out in the back.

As Leader and Konan lead Leara and her daughter away, the rest of the members stood behind.

Watching.

It wasn't until Kisame spoke that the Akastuki members realized that leader and the others had gone.

"Who was that?" Kisame asked.

Hidan turned to the blue-shark-man. "Her name is-"

"Her name is Khanoy, Leara." Said a cold, emotionless, tone, almost to soft to hear.

One by one the members turned to the location of the voice. Itachi stood in front of them, head slightly bent, eyes looking to the ground. He shifted his eyes to the direction of where Leara was last seen.

"_Leara…" _


	15. Chapter 15

_**OKAY, here is the latest chapter! Be kind when reviewing the fighting scenes…I haven't written them for a while, but I like the way they came out. I hope you do to. **_

_**Glitter2126**_

(it begins with a flashback)

**It had started raining, as he had fled Konoha. **

**His adrenaline was racing, as he glided through the trees, his heart pounding with emotion of the act he had just committed. His mind raced piecing together the events that had just passed; the blood on the floor, the terrified scream, his father marking him as a two-timer. **

**Itachi drew a deep breath, it had been the only way. It was either this, or the possibility of another war. **

**Yet, his mind could not erase the scene of his last few moments before he left the life which he had shared with his clan. The face of his brother angry and pained, bore into his mind. He had wanted nothing more then to tell him everything. But, of course, he couldn't. **

**The teen Uchiha had barely reached the border of Konoha and would have silently left, if it hadn't been for a slight movement a few yards away which caught his eye. **

**He knew he should have left, but he couldn't resist. **

**His pale black eyes turned a sickly blood red.**

**His vision was darting through the trees, trying to find the source of the movement. He finally came to a clearing, to which he knew to well to be the park in which he and his previous team met, whether it was for practice or leisure. It only took a few seconds to spot the chakra source. It was coming over from the swings, pale blues and purples emitting from their body. He had only seen one person with whisps of purple in their chakra. But, why was she out there at this time of night. The black haired man looked up to the sky, drops of rain falling onto his face, night was coming in steadily. No one would see him, them, which was good. **

**He smiled as he disappeared from the branch which he had been on, only to reappear a few meters away from the person sitting on the swings. He smiled even more, his face looking as if he was a small boy who was about to pull a prank. She hadn't noticed his presence. He walked, closing the gap between him and her back. Itachi saw the girls back tense, he knew he had been caught. He moved as she turned to face the 'supposed intruder'.**

"**Isn't it past your bed-time?" he asked, as the girl turned back. **

**She sat silent, her blonde hair completely drenched with water, head tilted down.**

"**What happened? Let's talk about it." he asked, eyeing the kunai in her hand. **

**The girl slowly lifted up her head, her eyes meeting his, her lip trembling lightly. Her voice cracked when she finally began to talk.**

"**I-I didn't mean to. I lost control. I was j-just so tired of the yelling and screaming and them h-h-hurting m-me." Her head bowed once again, and her hands began pulling at the black spandex on her legs, trying to cover them. **

**Itachi kneeled in front of her, lightly taking one of her arms. He pulled up the fishnet sleeve, revealing a series of purple, and yellow, bruises protruding up and down her arm along with a series of shallow cuts. **

"**Did you kill them all?" he asked lightly. **

"**Yes." **

**Itachi placed his hand in hers and pulled her gently to her feet. "Come with me." **

**Leara looked petrified. "You-you're going to turn me in aren't you?!" the blonde said just a little too loudly, her voice ringing around the two teens. She pulled her hand put of his, and griped the kunai in her other hand more tightly, ready to attack. **

"**No." the Uchiha replied calmly. "I want you to run away" He reached into his kunai pack and pulled out his konoha headband. It had a deep slash running through it. The blonde looked at it for a moment, her mouth slightly open. She shifted her gaze to her black haired companion. **

**Itachi replaced his headband out of sight, and once again held out his hand. "I can take you to somewhere you can be safe…" **

**Leara hastily placed her hand in his, her touch felt cold, yet warm. **

**He noticed a passer by watching them suspiciously. **

**He pulled her close to him, so that there faces were centimeters away from each other. **

**The stranger, contempt continued walking. **

"**But," Itachi whispered, his voice cold and serious, "You must promise to forget the life you knew here. Forget about our previous missions, and what used to be our team. Never tell anyone about this life. Understand?" he whispered the last word as more as an order, than a question. **

**The uchiha saw his companion consider this, before giving a slight nod. He turned, not letting go of her hand. **

**Together the two of them left Konaha's border in the pouring rain. **

XXXXXXX End Flashback XXXXXXXXXXX

Itachi slowly regained his sight and his surroundings. The other members were looking at him suspiciously.

Turning his back to his comrades, he began walking down the corridor.

"_God, how long was I out of it?" _he asked himself.

He saw out of the corner of his eye that the other members had caught up behind him. Kisame strode into step beside him to his right. The blue mans beady eyes watching him, a hint of concern within them. 

Itachi heard tobi attempting to whisper to Deidara.

"But, sempai, how does Itachi-san know who pretty lady is?"

"Tobi shut it, hmm. I don't know"

He was surprised to notice that someone else had fallen beside him on his left. He slightly looked; Hidan's violet eyes were looking directly at him, coldly.

The Uchiha turned a corner…

(slight time skip)

The training arena was a fairly large sized piece of land, located a few kilometers away from the main hideout. This was so that if someone happened to come across the infamous group, AND happened to get out alive the so-called-person wouldn't exactly know where the criminal's hideout was exactly.

A red circle had been drawn, to mark of the boundaries of the training ground. At one end of the circle stood Itachi, and at the other stood Leara; she had been given a wepons pouch, courtesy of Konan.

Standing in various places around the circle were the Akatsuki members.

(Karinai had been taken to her room, with great protest, by Konan.)

Pein strode to stand in between them. "As soon as I leave this circle, you may begin. If you are knocked out of the ring, it doesn't matter. This isn't a tae kwon do match. Just come back into the ring before you resume your fighting. When I think the battle should end, I will create some sort of signal to let you know to stop." He turned to look at Leara "Failure to stop, will result badly." Pein turned quickly, his black cloak whipping around him.

As he walked out of the ring he muttered "This should be good." he closed his eyes and listened for the fighting. After a few minutes of silence, leader slowly opened his eyes

"_He couldn't have finished her off already." _ But was shocked to see the opponents in the exact same position as when he had closed them. He narrowed his rippled eyes.

"What the hell is going on?" Hidan asked, looking from Leara to Itachi. "Why the fuck aren't the doing anything, shouldn't they be like tearing each other apart?"

Kakuzu heaved a sigh "Hidan, not all people are idiots like you who go straight into tearing your opponent into sushi.-"

"TOBI LIKES SUSHI!"

Kauzu pressed on. "Some people like to size up who their up against. Know what their dealing with."

Hidan lifted one of his eyebrows. "So why aren't they moving? Can't they 'size one another up' while fighting?"

"They're waiting until one of them makes the first move, and crosses their line." Konan said lightly, from beside Pein. "It's an old way of fighting. The person in battle marks an imaginary line in front of them, and waits. If their opponent passes that line, then they'll fight."

"But we wanted to see blood shed!" said Zetsu impatiently.

"I'm gonna cheer Itachi-san on" said Tobi to no one in particular. "GO ITACHI-SAN!!!"

At that moment, several things happened. Leader stepped within the boundaries of the arena, Itachi shifted his gaze ever so slightly to Tobi, and Leara attacked. A dark mass speed past Pein; the pieced man being flung out of the boundaries.

A kunai held in her hand, Leara rand towards the Uchiha man. _"Never take your eyes off your opponent!" _ her mind hissed. In a flash she was behind him, she swung the kunai blade. The blonde wasn't surprised that the kunai hit no flesh, but was surprised to see that she had cut a few black hairs from his head.

"_Ether you've gotten slower, or I've gotten faster."_

She felt someone grab her arm, but she was out of it before he had even fully grasped it. She darted from his grip twice more, before having enough. She spun around, producing a round house kick aimed for Itachi's head. It missed, but Leara countered it with a turning kick to his gut. That, she didn't miss. She felt her foot collide with Itachi's stomach. She tried to recoil it, but found that it wouldn't move. Leara tried again, but found that someone was holding it.

She looked Itachi in the face. His eyes were that same bloody red as the night she had tried so hard to forget about along with so many. Yet, they seemed to be in thought, his eyes.

"_She has become a lot better since the last time we fought" _Itachi thought _"The last time I didn't need to activate my sharingan until the very end." _ He closed his eyes, making sure he had a firm grip on her ankle. "_I guess I have no choice to fight you like I did all those years ago." _ Before he could reopen his eyes he grabbed Leara's other ankle which had attempted to hit him.

Leara gasped. _"How did he even know I was moving? His eyes were closed." _

Leara bent her back as she fell, allowing her hands to hit the ground before her actual body. 

"_No matter"_

Leara paused before she pushed off the ground with her hands, as if completing a back-handstand. And Itachi, who had still been hanging onto Leara, was forced into the air. He landed on the ground with her heels digging into his gut and chest. Leara did another backwards handstand. This time Itachi's grip was loosened, and her ankle slid from his grasp.

Itachi watched as Leara smiled to herself. _"She still has that same smile…"_ The smile, however, was quickly dismissed when Itachi was in front of her again.

Leara looked at him. He was to close to her. He hadn't been that close since....** He had kissed her. Gentle at first, but gradually getting more intimate**…_"Space! That's what I need, space!" _she thought draining the memory from her mind.

Itachi watched as she gracefully jumped on an angle away from him. _"You aren't getting away from me that easily"_ He smiled jumping along the same pattern as Leara had just seconds before. He came in front of her, and received a friendly punch to the face. A punch which, I may add, he gladly forwarded to his opponent's gut. Itachi threw another punch to her face, which she blocked. Leara countered it with a kick, which was also blocked.

Punch after punch. Kick after kick. Block after block. It seemed never ending to the two of them. They pulled out a kunai at the exact same moment and attacked, ricocheting of one another in opposite directions. Itachi began making hand signs in mid air. _Serpent,_ _Rabbit, Ox…_

"Katon, Goukakyuu no justu!" Leara's voice rang out

Itachi looked down on Leara, who was now on the ground; her yes as red as the flames coming towards him. A giant ball of fire, flames attacking anything in its path, hurdled toward the black haired man. Before the ball had just collided with him he dodged it, making new hand signs. _"So he did teach you fire style" _" Katon, Housenka no Jutsu!"

Droplets of fire flew towards Leara.

"_Let the games begin…"_ Itachi thought.

OoOoOoOoOoOo 2 ½ hours later OoOoOoOoOo

"THEY"RE STILL AT IT!" whined Tobi for the tenth time that minute.

"TOBI, hmm!" shouted Deidara, a vein pulsing on his forehead.

The Akatsuki seemed to heave a great sigh all at once. For the past 2 ½ hours they had watched endlessly as Itachi and Leara fought. Many of the members including Konan had received burn marks from standing to close to the ring, therefore getting burned whenever a stray fire jutsu happened to come their way.

Sasori actually had caught on fire.

…Twice…

…And was standing as far away as he possibly could.

Still the two opponents seemed to fight endlessly. They too had burns over their arms, and mouths. There were even tiny hole in their clothing from where the fire had scorched their clothing. Leara had received a cut running from her shoulder to just before her elbow. Itachi didn't have any cuts on him, but was feeling bruises erupting all over his body; including his groin, which Leara had given a swift knee jab, when he had grabbed her. All in all the two of them looked a little beat up.

Pein stood a meter away from the red boundary line, watching. He hadn't blinked or moved since he was flung out of the arena.

"Pein…" said a soft voice behind him.

"Yes Konan?" he asked, not taking his eyes off of the battle in front of him.

"It's been over 2 hours. Don't you think it's time to put an end to this madness?" Konan said, coming to stand beside her partner. Her hair was slightly singed, and smoking around the loose ends of her hair.

"Not until he uses it." The pierced man said.

"I-I beg your pardon?"

"I want to see him use his sharingan on her. I want to see what will happen when he does." Pein said defiantly.

Konan looked down; she knew he had wanted this all along. "She has the sharingan to, you know." She spoke quietly.

"I know. I want to see how strong her sharingan is up against his."

"What?"

Pein sighed, impatiently. "Look at her Konan. She isn't exactly the spitting image of an Uchiha! Some one has obviously given her the eyes, and I want to see what she can do with them."

Konan looked at her partner, and friend, for a split second before mumbling, "I understand.", walking away to rejoin the rest of the members.

Pein continued watching _"Leara's been cautious when handling him. She knows when and when not to look at him. She's been trained to fight the sharingan before. Still, I want to see how you handle yourself when you're trapped in it." _ The pierced, red haired male smiled wondering at what the outcome may be. _"Come on Itachi, do it soon." _He thought once more, watching the battle…

…Itachi had grabbed her at arms length away. His arms were longer that hers, so she couldn't punch him. Leara went to kick in order to push out of his reach, only when she hit Itachi's gut he pulled her close, so close that he wrapped his arms completely around her.

"_Shit, I'm stuck!"_ the blonde though, looking up.

Then all went black.

Leara hadn't meant to look into his eyes. She closed her eyes quickly, hoping that there was still time, even though she knew it was too late…

"Mangekyou Sharingan"

…Leara opened her eyes…a sickly red tone was surrounding her and her surroundings.

She was standing in her old room. Leara took in a few deep breaths _"Oh please, oh please let this not be what I think it's going to be." _ Leara looked around her old room; the room which she had spent so many years crying, bleeding, in.

The room was smaller than what she remembered. A single sized bed was over in the corner, beside a small bookshelf propped up against the wall. A few pictures hung on the wall; some of her family, but most of her squad and friends. A punching bag, along with a few training equitment was over in the corner. A closet was on the opposite wall from her bed. Leara was about to continue looking around her room when a noise caught her attention.

_Drip…drip…drip_

The noise continued. It was coming from her closet. The blonde took small steps, each one creaking in the floor boards, until she reached the closet. She grabbed the handle, took a deep breath, and slid open the door. The stench of bodies filled her nostrils. Leara let go of the door and used her hand to cover her mouth and nose. Three bodies toppled out in front of her; 2 males and a female. She looked down at the oldest of them all: Her father whose hair was dirty and greasy. You could hardly tell that he had been blonde. His eyes were open, as well as his mouth, and a deep slit ran across his throat.

"_I forgot I threw their bodies in the closet after." _She thought recalling the night so many years ago.

Leara felt like she was going to be sick; her stomach contracted and fell to the floor. Her hand fell from covering her nose and mouth. The stench of dried blood was overpowering. Leara felt an icy hand fall on top of hers, and she froze. She looked to her father, who seemed to be moving on his own. His moved up her arm and grabbed it with such pressure Leara might have thought her arm might break. Then, to her horror, her father began to speak.

"You filthy little ingrate!" his cold voice rang out.

Leara looked away from her father, but a hand grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at the man she hated, and feared, so much.

"LOOK AT ME WHEN I TALK TO YOU." He shouted sternly. Blood poured out of the slit in his throat, and his mouth while he talked. The blonde haired man spit in her face, blood hitting her in the cheek.

"You are a disgrace to this family." He said pulling himself and his daughter up at the same time, bringing her close to him; the smell of his blood and bodily decay growing stronger with every second. "Why should we even keep you." He spat, sliding his hand down to Leara's throat, where he began to squeeze.

Leara gasped for breath "Stop it" she gasped. This only made her father grin and squeeze harder. A movement occurred behind him, and Leara watched as her brother and sister got up, throwing insults at the same time.

"You were the reason mother died!"

"You mean nothing to this family!"

"You deserve to be punished!"

"What kind of sibling would KILL their own family!"

"You are a useless shinobi, and a useless sister!"

"No wonder he left you and never showed who would want to care for you anyway!"

"STOP IT!" Leara shouted, a burst of chakra emitting from her. "GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT" she cried.

Then everything was gone. She slid to the floor, gasping for breath. She looked up half expecting to see her family reappear, but they didn't.

"Is it over?" she breathed _"No it's not"_ she thought, and with a lurch, was lurched into a pain beyond belief.

"WHO IS HE?" a cold, snake like, voice screamed out.

Leara stood up, trying to grasp the pain, only to be struck down by a brutal force.

"I said, WHO IS THE FATHER?"

Leara looked up into the piercing eyes of Orochimaru. His eyes were cole and full of disgust. A white pale hand reached for her, and grabbed Leara by the hair. He pulled her to her feet with ease, before striking her down again with a kunai blade. Leara placed a hand over her stomach, only to feel a warm liquid surrounding it. She lifted her hand to see dark blood covering her hand. A swift kick to the stomack caused her to fall to her side. Leara lay in pain, crying heavily.

Orochimaru's face was suddenly looming over her. "If you wont give me the name. Then I won't give you your baby." He snarled holding up the kunai in front of her stomach.

"Please stop this." Was all Leara managed to say. Not to Orochimaru, but to the sharingan user who as the cause of all the pain.

Orochimaru's face became distorted, like a mixture of her father and her old sensei. "You sicken me" The orchimaru, father, figure spat, before plunging the kunai deep in her stomach. Then she heard a scream. It was the scream of her unborn child; Karinai. She looked to the side of her and saw her daughter lying in front of her, bleeding vigorously.

Not knowing what to do, she closed her eyes, collecting all her chakra within her body. She heard the voices of Orochimaru and her father jeering her on.

"GET OUT OF MY MIND!" Leara shouted, reopening her once blue eyes. They now were filled red with black designs growing around the eye.

Then it was over. She was out.

Itachi was still holding her, looking at her. His eyes staring into hers. Leara saw his lips slightly curve.

"Bet you enjoyed that" she hissed to him, preparing to attack again.

Itachi's smile faltered.

It was then the rain started pouring, and a kunai flew past them. Both of them looked to the source to see Pein standing in front of them. Itachi released Leara like she was a disease, and backed away. Pein moved, and stood in front of the blond, his rippled eyes staring into her red ones. He held out a cloak to her.

"Welcome to the Akatsuke. You will be sharing a room with Konan." And with that he turned, and walked away.

The rest of the members, including Itachi turned and walked away as well. Leara hesitated. This could be her time to escape, to bound through the trees to safety. She looked to the tree line, and then sighed before following after the members. Itachi was the last one to follow.

…**The sound of their footsteps were barely heard over the rain as they escaped Konaha… **

Leara blinked away the ever so familiar scene. _"This is the second time I've run away with you in the rain." _ She thought before she ran and caught up with the other members, making sure to ignore Itachi's presence.


	16. Chapter 16

**Hello everyone...*stares at everyone holding their torches and and nooses* **

****falls to knees** I'm soooooooo sorry for not updating this, i really am. But, since the beginning of school it's been physically impossible to get time to write this. But, i'm making a pact with myself to atleast write a chapter or 2 every month...anyway, you're most likely gonna have to re-read the previos chapter just to refresh your memory on what is happening.....**

**Happy Reading**

**-glitter2126 **

(P.S sorry if this chapter is a bit lame or soap opera-ish)

Chapter what-ever-one-were-on:

"It's not much, but it's home." Konan said, sliding the key into the lock and turning. The bluette opened the door and stood aside, allowing her blonde companion to take a first look at what would be her new home.

Leara hesitantly stepped inside, gripping her new black and red cloak for security. She looked around. "It's so beautiful." Was all she managed to say.

A light cream colour covered the walls, and dark hard wood covered the floor. A neatly made queen sized bed was in the far corner, right beside a closed door which Leara assumed lead to what appeared to be a bathroom. A small kitchenette stood beside the front door, which faced opposite to another closed door.

Konan lightly smiled her cheeks lightly red. "Thanks." She said meekly "umm, well 'that's my bed right there." She said pointing to the bed in front of her, stepping through the door way, removing her shoes. Leara did the same.

"That's the washroom, the kitchen." She said walking through the small apartment. "and this…" she said walking to the closed door opposite from the kitchen " is your room."

Leara watched as Konan opened the door, and flicked on the light switch. It was smaller than the main part of the apartment, but still a fair size. Two beds were located in the room; one of which Karinai was sleeping on. There was also a closet, a dresser and a night table near the second empty bed.

"_It's so homelike."_

Leara stepped into the room, the floor boards beneath her creaked. The image of the bodies of her family covered in blood filled her head. She was even certain she could smell the dried blood.

The blonde brought up a hand to her mouth, and she lurched over; collapsing onto the floor. Closing her eyes, she felt all her energy draining out of her body.

"_Shit, the effects of the sharingan are still in place." _

The touch of a soft warm hand made her reopen her eyes, and look up. Konan was lightly patting her back. Konan lifted out another pale hand, to which Leara grabbed onto, and got up.

Konan led her out of the room, closing the door. Together they proceeded to the kitchen; Konan still holding tightly to Leara's hand. She sat the blonde down at the small kitchen table, located in the middle of the kitchen. Konan pulled another chair beside Leara and sat down; a look of worry filled her face.

"Are you okay?" Konan asked "Do you need anything, water, Tylenol?"

"No, I'm fine. I just forgot how much the after effects of fighting the sharingan can affect the body"

Leara, upon realizing what she had just said, brought a hand up to her mouth. _"Baka, what'd you say that for?" _

"Leara…" Konan began "I was hoping we could talk."

Leara raised her eyes and looked at Konan, whose face showed no emotion. She swallowed "What would you like to talk about?" Leara said lightly, although she very well knew what was about to come. 

"Who taught you to fight against the sharingan?" Konan asked.

"I was taught in the academy, just like everyone else in Konoha. After all, when I went to school, the Uchiha clan was very powerful." Pause "After all, we needed to know how to protect ourselves against everyone, even if they were considered our allies" Leara responded.

Konan raised an eyebrow. _"That was well rehearsed. I wonder how many times she's been asked that. Although, it probably is true: about the academy teaching their students to protect themselves against the Uchiha clan. After all it probably wasn't long after the Madara incident when she attended school_."

"Who gave you the sharingan eyes?"

"Someone." Leara responded mechanically.

"Who taught you how to use them?"

"The same person who gave them to me."

"Why are you considered a criminal?"

"S-ranked criminal actually."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Leara…" Konan said in a mother like tone.

Leara lowered her eyes, avoiding Konan. "I killed my family." She finally said. "My brother, sister, father…"

"…Your mother." Konan completed

"No." Leara stated, looking back at Konan; her eyes staring coldly. "My mother was murdered when I was 6. She was the only one that ever really loved me in my family" Leara concluded lowering her eyes.

"I'm sure your father and siblings loved you." Konan said sympathetically, reaching out a hand to comfort her blonde companion. Leara pushed it away and stood up, her head tilted down; pieces of her blonde hair covering her eyes.

"You think they loved me?" She said quietly, but threateningly. "You think that I was being a selfish little brat, who was being over dramatic in thinking that the world hated me, and that I was alone? Is that what you think?" Leara grabbed the bottom of her top, turned around and lifted it up so that her bare back was facing Konan.

A jagged scar ran up from her hip to the beginning of her left shoulder blade. Konan just stared at it in shock.

"What the hel-" she began. Leara answered before Konan could finish her question.

"A broken china doll fragment. My china doll actually. I had been playing with it, when my dad accidentally stepped on it. He got angry that I had left my toys out, and then accused me that I had cut his foot on purpose. So he cut me with one of the pieces, saying that next time I shouldn't leave my toys out…I was 8."

"Why would he think that you tried to hurt him purposely, you were 8?" Konan asked.

Leara pulled her top back down. "I don't even think he thought that, but at that time, he would come up with any excuse to hurt me, and put me in my place." She returned to facing Konan, but still remained standing.

"Didn't your brother and sister try to defend you? "

Leara smiled and chuckled. "At first they did, but after a few months they just gave up." Her smile deteriorated. "After all why get beat up themselves, when they could pick on the baby of the family." She then took off her right sock. She then lifted it up, flexing it so Konan could see the long thin scars that ran from her heel and up each of her toes.

Konan looked at them and recognized immediately what weapon had caused them. "Those marks came from-"

"A kunai. Yes, I know. My brother and sister were also ninjas."

"You mean your family was part of the ninja community?" Konan asked questioningly.

"Everyone except for my mother. My father had to retire early due to an injury on a mission. He was a medic nin, ironic right?" Leara lightly smiled and continued. "My older brother and sister were of the chunin level I believe, it's been so long, I can't even remember…" Leara's voice went to a whisper as she finished, her smile faded. Konan found this strange.

"What level were you?"

"ANBU" Leara said, her voice still whispering.

An awkward silence fell between the 2 females. They both looked at each other, not knowing what to say. All that could be heard was the ticking of a clock, and the light moaning of Karinai from the other room. It was Leara that broke the silence.

"I was 13 and a half."

"Hmmm, I'm sorry, what?"

"I was 13 and a half when I was appointed to ANBU rank."

Konan smiled "I think your skilled, but really?" she said in a sarcastic tone.

Leara looked at her blankly, eyes emotionless. "I'm not joking Konan, I really was when I was 13 and a half."

Konan's smile faltered. _"Could Leara really be this strong?" _

Leara's voice broke Konan's thoughts. "I think that's why they hated me- My family- I mean. I always seemed to be the stronger ninja in my family's household. I know it sound's silly, but sometimes I blame myself."

Konan looked at her questioningly.

"I mean, my momma always said that I was too smart for my own good. After momma died, the beatings started, I was still a student at the academy. I thought that the reason why my dad would get angry would be because I wasn't strong enough, I wasn't good enough. I started working harder at the ninja academy; staying after hours to work on target practice, that sort of thing. Yet, still the beatings continued; they even became worse. And then, one day, I just realized it wasn't because I wasn't strong enough, it was because I was too strong.

I remember trying to hold myself back on missions when I had graduated. Not do anything that would make me stand out in my team. However, when I was 9 and a half, I found myself passing the chunin exams. I was then the same rank as my 14 year old siblings."

Konan put a hand on Leara's shoulder.

"How old were you when you killed them?" Konan asked _"The 1 million dollar question…"_

"Fourteen" the blonde responded without saying anything more.

Konan looked at Leara, and for the first time she actually saw her; a young mother, whose childhood had been damned to hell and her only way to escape it was to become the thing she had once lived to hate: a criminal. _"I feel really sorry for her. Not just for her, but for her daughter. They've both suffered something that I don't think I could even relate to. Leara's suffered the consequence of murder. Has had to carry the burden of raising a child at a young age; dealing with the stares of hatred, the name calling, and the reputation. I can't even imagine what that could be like, and I've been through a whole __lot in my childhood..."_

"…why I told you."

"Huh" Konan looked up, Leara was looking at her. She had obviously just said something which Konan had missed.

As if reading her mind, Leara repeated herself. "I said 'I don't know why I told you that' it was way too much for me to say."

"Oh no, it's no problem!" Konan exclaimed a little too loud, that Leara looked at her with a questionable expression planted on her face.

"I mean, it's no problem that you told me. In fact I'm glad that you told me. I think it will help us build a better understanding with each other. You know, so that we can build, like, a relationship." Konan said with a nervous laugh, before falling silent.

A silence which didn't break for a long time. It was Karinai who broke the silence.

"Mommy" She lightly moaned from the other room.

Both the young women at the table turned and looked at the doorway. Leara turned and looked at Konan. "Excuse me." She said getting up from the table, pushing back her chair. Without even knowing, Konan was on her feet as well.

Both women looked at each other. The bluette looked at Leara; there were bags under her blue eyes, the pony tail which had once been neatly placed on her head now had several loose strands of blonde hair framing her face. Several bruises were showing up and down her arms, so Konan noted.

"Well, I guess I'll say goodnight." Leara said uncomfortably. Staring at Konan with her blue eyes; making Konan rather uncomfortable.

"Yeah! I guess so. I have some things that I have to get done." Konan Said walking to the front door of her apartment. "I guess I'll let you tend to everything, and get some rest. She said before turning and exiting the room, Leaving Leara alone in the apartment.

Konan closed the door behind her, heaving a great sigh. "_Well, that was awkward." _She raised her bent head and jumped back; her back hitting the door. Pein was directly in front of her.

"Did I startle you?" he asked politely; his deep voice, smooth to the bluette's ears.

"Just enough to give me a heart attack." Konan said with a little laugh.

The sides of the pierced man's lips curved into a smirk. He stepped aside, an arm outstretched, indicating Konan to walk with him.

Both of them walked down the hallway. The lights we set down to dim, making the beige coloured walls appear orange.

"Did you find anything out?" Pein asked bluntly.

"Excuse me?" Konan asked, confused.

"What did you find out about Leara." Pein said stopping to look at Konan. Konan took a few more steps, contemplating.

Should she tell him about what she had learned? Pein was, and always had been, her closest friend. A part of her said yes, but the other said no to ratting on her new found friend friend.

A cough made her turn around, to look at her companion. Just by looking at Pein she could tell he didn't like Leara. His eyes were bearing into Konan, pressing her to tell him what secrets she had gotten from the newest member of Akatsuki.

"_I won't tell him." _Konan thought firmly.

"well..." Pein asked impatiently.

"_I can't tell him..." _

Looking straight into Pein's eyes, she calmly said "I didn't get anything, but her name. After all, she was quite tired.

Pein seemed to contemplate this answer for a moment. His eyebrows raised in thought. After what seemed like hours to Konan, the pierced man turned in the opposite direction and began walking away. He stopped briefly only to say: "Keep me informed", before continuing to walk away.

As soon as he was out of sight Konan let go of the the air that she had been subconsciously holding in. _"I hope i don't regret this later."_ Was all she thought as she turned to walk away, for this had been the first time she had ever lied to her partner, her friend, Pein.


	17. Chapter 17

**EDIT: OMG, my computer was acting retarded and attempted to fix the spelling on this (ie-changing kabuto into kabuki, and so on.) so i'm re uploading this chapter, so that it makes sense for once....I'M SO SORRY I DIDN'T REALIZE SOONER**

**Hehehe...sorry about not updating long. I've had family, health, and educational issues happening for the past 3 months...yeah, but anyway, most of them have been taken care of, so i will keep on top of this story for now on. (I'm hoping to be done it within the next few months...) Anyway on with the chapter....**

***If i owned Naruto do you think i would have made Kabuto disappear for 2 F**kin' years?* **

Chapter 17

Meanwhile, back in Konan's apartment.

Leara sat beside Karinai on the bed, subconsciously stroking her daughter's hair. Karinai looked up. Her eyes still foggy from sleep.

"Mommy, how did it go?" she asked sleepily, siting up and resting her body on her arms. "Do we get to stay?"

Leara looked at her child, her lips in a slight smile. "Yes, we get to stay." she said gently. "Go back to bed, we'll talk in the morning." she said laying her daughter back down in the bed and kissing her head. Karinai fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. Leara lightly smiled and got up, moving to her own bed. She felt the floor tilt beside her and she fell to the floor.

"Shit!" she whispered. Her voice full of frustration. She tried to stand up once more, but her legs gave out, and tumbled to the floor once more. With a sigh, she started crawling across the room. Both hands and feet firmly on the ground. She made it to her bed and pulled herself up onto it. She closed her eyes. She felt her chakra levels weakening, and slowly slipping away from her.

It wasn't going to be long before she would pass out.

She closed her eyes only to be greeted with a room filled with blood and bodies. Her pale blue eyes shot open. She wasn't going to let this happen; she wasn't going to act like baby and cry because she relived the murder of her family.

"_It was just an illusion."_ Leara thought, turning to look at her sleeping daughter. _"He never killed her, it was just an illusion." _The blonde once again closed her eyes, pushing out the sight of the horrid rotting corpses on the ground. To her luck, they disappeared.

Her whole body was almost relaxed when her memories started coming back. **The paleness of his hands...the snake like appearance...the training....the horrible missions...the surgery.**

"**Leara, I take it the mission was a success?" her sensei asked her.**

"**Yes Orochimaru sensei." The young blonde of 15 responded, holding up the decapitated head of a man who was once the leader of a village. **

**Orochimaru smiled, "Good" he said walking over and taking the head. "This man always bothered me with his views about politics." He said looking into the heads glazed eyes. His eyes sifted to the young blond who was still standing in the doorway. Setting the head down on his desk, he turned to Leara "Leara, I've been meaning to discuss something with you." he said making his way to stand beside her. "Walk with me, will you?" he stated wrapping his slender arm around her shoulders. **

**With no emotion she nodded, walking in stride with him. Allowing her sensei to steer her. After a while he asked "Leara, how long has it been since you came into my 'care'?" he said, emphasizing the word care. **

"**2 years" Leara responded.**

"**Has it really been that long?" Orochimaru mused "2 whole years, since you arrived in my room. 2 years since I gave you the mark." he said looking at the back of her neck, where a spider web design of black covered her neck. "2 years since you last saw him."**

**Leara's eyes flicked to her side for a minute. True she hadn't seen him for a long while. True he was the one who literally sold her to this monster of a man. But what did she care? Did she even care? No? Yes? **

"**2 years..." Orochimaru continued, leading her into a room with a medical table. He ushered her to sit on the table while he continued. "You have grown so much since then; mentally and physically. And now i think your ready." he concluded turning away from her. **

**Leara's stomach gave a lurch. What did he mean by 'ready'? What was he concocting in his evil mind that needed her. **

"**Leara, what do you know about eye transplants?" he asked wearily, searching through a cupboard. **

"**Not much." Leara stated, shifting around, suddenly noticing how much of an operation room the room looked like. She did not like where this was going...**

"**It's quite remarkable really. The process of placing the corneal in another eye, so that the are able to see; able to use them to the fullest of their ability." Orochimaru stated turning around with a container containing two red eyes. **

"**Umm..." Leara said uncomfortably "...why do you have the sharingan eyes in a jar." **

**Orochimaru laughed. "Oh don't be scared, they wont harm you; the cells are dead." he said taking a step towards her. "However, if they were to be placed onto a living eye, they could again live and again unleash the sharing an." **

"_**I don't like were this is going" **_**the teen thought. She jumped when the door opened and closed behind her. **

"**Ah Kabuto, is everything ready?" Orochimaru greeted. **

**Leara turned to see the silver haired man carrying a tray filled with needles, scalpels, and other things. **_**"I don't like this at all..."**_

"**Yes Orochimaru. The sedative is all ready." **

"**Sedative?" Leara whispered, looking at Kabuki.**

"**Yes, sedative." Orochimaru said turning her chin to face him. "It's to help you be more relaxed during the procedure." **

"**Procedure?" Leara croaked.**

**Orochimaru smiled, his yellow eyes gazing directly into her blue ones. "It's been 2 years since you came. 2 years since the Uchiha massacre. I think it's time I put what 2 objects I collected that night to good use and combine them." he said stroking her cheek lightly. "I was planning on using the eyes for myself, but i have another plan on how to get my own. So I'm giving you these eyes, in order for you to become even stronger in serving me." **

**Leara pulled away. "N..No" was all she managed to say.**

**Orochimaru looked to Kabuto who gave a curt nod before grabbing her arms, pinning her to the table. **

**Orochimaru looked over her, a needle in his hand. No doubt filled with sedatives. "Just think of it as a promotion" He said as he pierced the needle into her arm. **

**At first the blonde struggled to get free, but within minutes she felt her body going numb. Soon her vision blurred, the last thing she seeing is the image of Orochimaru, her master, placing a scalpel just above her eye....**

.....Leara's eyes shot open as she bolted up from her bed. Her sweat covered top clung to her body like an extra skin. A pain erupted in her eyes and she brought her hands up, clutching her face. Her clammy hands clutched her face, Leara's nails digging into her skin. _"Just breathe..." _was all she thought. "It was just a memory" the blonde whispered as she pulled her hands away. She shuttered as she saw that her hands were covered in a thin layer of blood.

"_Fuck" _

Getting up, she silently made her way to the hallway just outside her room. Konan's soft breathing was herd to her left.

"_where was the washroom again?" _she questioned, looking around. She saw a door that was shut, and made her way over. She turned the handle and walked in. Moving her hand along the wall she found the light switch and flicked it on. Her reflection stared back at her; crimson tears streaming her cheeks.

Leara shuttered again, closing the door, and turning on the tap; filling it up with Luke warm water.

Leara found a cloth, and pushed it into the water. Again pain emerged through her body. Clenching her teeth together, she brought the cloth up to her cheeks and washed away the blood. She had to repeat the process quite a few times until the blood was completely removed from her face. The blonde then rinsed the cloth, emptying the sink at the same time.

With the cloth still in hand Leara made her way back to her room. She passed a clock, hung on her bedroom wall, as she re-entered the room. 2:30am was what it read.

With a sigh, Leara made it back to her bed. Lying down, she placed the wet cloth over her eyes. Letting all her senses relax, she silently fell back asleep, letting the memories once again take over.

**Blackness is what greeted her. Leara woke up completely surrounded by darkness. **_**"Ha...what happened?" **_**the teen thought.**

"**The surgery went very successful." Was the answer she received. **

"_**Surgery?..." **_**was all Leara thought. The memory then hit her. The scalpel, the sedative, the eyes...**

**She felt someone behind her; Her body tensing naturally.**

"**It's okay Leara, it's only me." orochimaru's's voice whispered in her ear. "You're blindfolded right now. I'm going to untie it, do you want me to?"**

**Leara nodded.**

"**Good girl." He said moving in front of her. "Now you may not be able to see very well when i take it off..." Orochimaru said, removing the blindfold. "...But it should pass." he concluded. **

**Leara attempted to look into her master's eyes. Something that was attempted but failed. Dizziness was an understatement to what the blonde was feeling- Drunk was more like it. Eventually, however, her eyes adjusted and she clearly saw the yellowness of Rochambeau's snake eyes. **

"**Aren't they beautiful" The pale man whispered, holding up a small pocket mirror.**

**Leara looked at her reflection, two red eyes greeted her instead of her pale one's. However, as soon as she had seen them, her eyes returned to their pale blue they had always been. Leara placed the mirror down, confusion placed on her brow. **

**Orochimaru smiled. "Don't worry, your sharing an has just hidden itself. When the time come to using it, it will reappear." He said moving towards the door. "Your mess are on the tray beside you. You may want to wait a few minutes before you stand up and leave to your room." He said walking out of the room; his long hair gliding after him. "Oh, and just so you know." he said stopping "your sharing an training starts tomorrow at 8 and you have a mission that needs to be completed soon. So, you might want to get a good nights sleep." **

**With that Leara was left alone. **

**At first she didn't know what to feel. Leara first felt tears, then she felt scared, but then she felt anger. An anger which she hadn't felt in a long time, picking up a scalpel beside her, she through it to her right; letting it smash into an empty vial. **

Subconsciously, the sleeping Leara took the cloth from her eyes and whipped it across the room; hitting the wall with a thud.

**Leara's memories started shifting around, fast forwarding through the next half of a year. The teen would train day after day. Go on mission after mission. Kill after kill. Rushing faster and faster, until it came to a complete stop. **

**The 15 ½ Leara rushed through the trees. Running from the shouts of her persuers. **

"_**God dammit! How could I have gotten so sloppy?" **_**she thought closing her eyes. Opening them, her sharing an was activated. ****_"I need to find an open space where I can end this..." _Looking around she found a field meters away. _"That should do." _She thought re-closing her eyes, deactivating her eyes. **

**The blonde landed swiftly on the ground, her long hair touching the ground as she crouched. Her 3 persuers stopped dead in front of her. **

**The tallest one, male, stepped forward. "Okay, little girl, just give us the necklace that you stole, and we'll leave you alone." he said smartly. "Or maybe you can keep the necklace, but give us, uh, something in return." he smirked looking her up and down. **

**The response that he got was a Kunai in his both head and his 'private' spot.**

"**Fuck you ass hole." Was all Leara said running and attacking the other 2 men in front of her. **

**Killing them had proven easy enough, however it was after she was finished gutting them that she noticed that another chakra level had entered the fight. Standing up cautiously, she held tight to a Kunming. Swinging around, her wrist was grabbed. Out of instinct, she responded with a kick to the stomach then the head. She only hit the stomach. Her leg was caught as it touched the head of her attacker. Not knowing what to do she used the first attack she could think of...Looking up her eyes weaved into the the black cobwebs that made up the sharing an. **

**However, her attack was never completed, for the same eyes stared back at her.**

**Immidiately, both of the sharing an users let go and stood in front of each other. **

"**You" they both said in unison....**

**Again her memories started moving all together. That wasn't the last time she saw him again. Her memories produced several other memories of them together- laughing, walking, talking, holding hands...Leara never told about their meetings with Orochimaru-sensei, why should see? She knew he hated him anyway. And as far as she could tell, he never told his friends about her...**

**...It was their secret, their affair, their love. A certain memory proved to show such physical love that only someone truly in love could show...It was also that memory that lead Leara into her sense's main quarters one evening not to long after...**

"**For the last time who is the father!" The snake man demanded.**

"**I don't know what you're talking about." Was all the 16 year old replied. **

"**You try my patience girl..." Orochimaru stated, pacing in front of her. "How long do you intend ****to keep it a secret for me? You've already been there for 2 weeks?" **

**...no response...**

"**Fine! Stay up there!" He shouted storming out of the cold, damp room.**

**Leara shuttered. He was right, she couldn't keep it up anymore. She had been hung up against the wall like a rag doll for so long know. The rope was digging into her ankles and wrists so much. The blonde drew in a deep breath. **_**"I have to get out. Tonight." **_**.....**

**Escaping had proven to be more exhausting then planned. Her body still ached from swinging back and forth to dull the ropes. None the less, she had escaped. She had gotten out unnoticed, and had even been able to grab a few of her belongings. Now, as she hurried along the deserted path towards the small village, which she had commonly gone too to get feminine supplies, she couldn't help put shed the tears of pain she had felt for the past few weeks. **

**When she got to the town, it was early morning. She hastily made it over to a small dinner which had just opened, and ordered a large milk. After it came, she pulled out a pen and paper which she a taken and wrote. After paying Leara made a quick dash to the washroom and proceeded to puke up the milk which she had just digested. **

"_**I guess I'm gonna have to get used to that in the next few months." **_

**The blonde left the dinner feeling worse then what she had during her puking. She made her way to the small post office. She dropped the letter inside and walked away. Hoping that her companion would soon read the words which she had wrote:**

**'I know I haven't written for the past few weeks. I just haven't been able to bring myself to write what I am about to say. I'm pregnant, you're the father and I want to keep it. I am no longer under the command of Orochimaru, having just escaped hours ago. I know that the letter will take 2 days to get to you, and i am anticipating that in my plan. I plan to leave 4 days from now by train. I hope that you will be able to join me. I want the child to have a normal life, the life you or I never had growing up. I, again, hope to see you at the station-platform 3. **

**Love,**

**Leara**

**Please don't be afraid of what will happen.**

**Please...Itachi...'**

...And for the second time Leara shot up, a new layer of sweat soaking her top. This time, however, in stead of crying blood, it was salty tears that stained her cheeks.

The blonde turned her head to look at her daughter. _'He never loved me...if he had he would have come..." _turning her head back, she again closed her eyes and attempted to fall back asleep. Thankfully she was greeted with the utter blackness of sleep with no more hauntings of her past...


	18. Chapter 18

**Ch.18. I have no excuse why this is almost a year late...**

She felt the warm rays of sun hitting her face. She liked the warmth; it felt as though hundreds of kisses were being planted all over her. The blonde's body was totally relaxed. Her blue eyes closed; blocking out all signs of life and surrounding herself in darkness. This was just the way Leara liked it.

She had always like it better when she couldn't see anything. It made her feel as though there was always a glimmer of hope, a dream, within the bleakest of situations.

Leara sighed. "_I could stay like this forever." _she thought as she slowly fell asleep listening to her rhythmic breathing.

It seemed only seconds later when she was being shaken awake. "Mommy wake up." Leara groaned as she turned her back to the source of the noise. It was no good, the source moved and was again in front of her. "Mommy, come on, wake up." After not budging, the mother felt herself rolled onto her back and the weight of a child roughly the age of 5 sitting on her.

Leara opened her eyes, light piercing into them; blinding her momentarily. "Yes Karinai?" She asked softly, looking into her daughter's face.

"Why did you sleep outside last night?"

"Because I needed some air."

"It's 7:30." The child proclaimed.

"Yea and it's a Sunday. "

"Meaning."

Leara let out a little laugh, "Meaning that it's my day off and that I can rest."

"But I'm hungry." Karinai moaned.

The mother propped herself up onto her elbows "Oh Really?"

The black haired child nodded still on top of her mother's stomach.

"Well you know who else is hungry?" Leara asked.

Karinai shook her head no.

"The tickle monster is." Leara said leaning in as close to her daughter as she could. "Do you know what tickle monsters like to eat on Sunday mornings Karinai?"

Karinai looked at her mother as if she was deciding whether or no to answer. "No."

"Well, what tickle monsters like to eat," Leara slowly positioned her hands on either side of her daughter's tiny body "What tickle monster's like to eat are: CUTE LITTLE GIRLS WHO WAKE UP THEIR MOTHERS ON A SUNDAY MORNING!" She yelled as she tickled her daughter's sides ferociously.

**XXXXXSome distance awayXXXXX**

He could hear Karinai screaming with glee and Leara laughing along with her.

A few strands of black hair fell into his face. Itachi didn't bother pushing them away. He was to fastened with watching The blonde and her child rolling on the grass a few yards away. They looked like a picture perfect family; All smiling faces and what not. All that was missing was a male in the picture...Someone who protected them when they were both scared...

...A father...

...A husband...

"_Me..."_

"Ah there you are Itachi-san." A deep voice said, interrupting his thoughts.

Itachi turned around, already placing the voice to a name.

That blue man looked at him inquiringly. "How long you been out here?"

"About a half hour." he said in his smooth voice. "Why are you out here?"

"Karinai came asking where her mother was. I told her to check the training field, just in case she had gone out to sleep there again." Kisame smiled, a row of jagged teeth slightly protruding from his mouth, "Heck, I wanted to make sure she was alright." He laughed while running a meaty hand through his cropped hair. Suddenly his joyful emotion was gone. His face was hard and heavy lined. "However, that still doesn't explain why you are here, huh, Itachi-san."

Itachi said nothing. His face seemed to freeze in it's natural looking place.

The shark man gave his comrade a curious look, "You know the other members have been talking. About how you seemed to know her name and how you blanked out." Kisame looked at his partner as if trying to get some hidden fact from Itachi's poker face.

"It was 3 months ago." With that he turned and started walking back towards base, leaving Kisame. As a second thought he added, "If Deidara has found some new sort of gossip to talk about, I think it's time for me to by him this month's 'cosmopolitan' magazine."

**XOXO Slight Time Skip XOXO**

Now the Akatsuki kitchen was always crowded in the morning. In an ideal setting the kitchen could hold 4 maybe 5 persons maximum- and that was only when everyone cooperated with everyone else. This however was not an ideal situation and included 10 S-ranked criminals (Minus Pein, whom was rarely seen eating) all fighting for cutlery, bowls, napkins, and who deserved the last bowl of Captain Crunch and who would have to suffer with eating the organic cereal which tasted like grass. Needless to say, it is more dangerous to enter the kitchen of 9 bed headed criminals then meeting them on the road.

And with that being said, it was not a different scenerio when Leara and karinai made to the kitchen of the Akatusi base at 8 o'clock in the morning.

"For the LAST time Deidara, I'm going to have the last bowl! You got it last time, so this time I get it!"

"You're a puppet for Christ's sake, you don't even need to eat!"

"WELL TODAY I FEEL LIKE IT!" The red head yelled into the blonde's ear.

Konan was perched at the small round table provided in the already clustered room. "I just don't understand why you don't by more of Captain Crunch when you go shopping." She remarked to Kakuzu, who was sitting beside her, while taking a bite out of her toast.

"I've already told you..." Kakuzu mumbled taking a swig of his black coffee, "If the box wasn't 4 dollars a piece, I would. But they are, so I DON'T!"

Konan rolled her eyes.

Leara made a mental note that Kakuzu wasn't in the best of mods today.

Karinai made right for the counter, dragging her mother with her. "Karinai, we can just wait." Leara lightly scolded, turning to leave.

Kisame appeared holding 2 cups of coffee. "To late to escape now." He said smiling at Leara. Leara laughed a little. "Coffee?" he said holding up a cup to her.

"Just milk?" Leara asked.

"No other way."

"You are the man for me." Leara said sarcastically, taking the cup.

"hmm, no I'm not. " Kisame laughed, grabbing a third cup filled with apple juice and handing it to karinai."I just know what women like."

"Heh, amen to that."

"Well, I'm out of here. Take care of your mom in this mess, okay." the blue man said addressing Karinai.

"Yes sir!" The child saluted as Kisame fought out of the kitchen.

Leara scanned the kitchen. Deidara and Sasori were still arguing. Tobi had entered the fight insisting that he should be the one to get the toy hidden inside. Zetsu was over in the corner. Hidan was near the stove making eggs. She looked down to Karinai.

"How bout eggs and toast?"

The reply was a big nod and smile.

Still holding hands, the mother and child team fought their way past the cereal argument over towards the stove. Karinai let go of her mother's hand and headed for the toaster.

"Morning." Leara greeted.

"Morning." Hidan grumbled, still fiddling with his eggs on the stove.

"How many eggs are left?"

"'Bout 4." the Jashinist said flipping the eggs onto a plate.

Leara went to start making her eggs only to be brushed out of the way by Hidan. After receiving a questioning look, Hidan replied while cracking the eggs into the pan:"I'm already here, so I might as well."

"Well, thank you." the blonde said smiling.

_'God, she has such a pure smile." _Hidan thought to himself.

"What?" Leara asked after noticing the smile placed lightly on the Jashinist's lips.

"Nothing." Hidan remarked. "So I saw that you slept outside again last night."

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"Morning ritual." Was all Hidan said. Leara understood. "That makes it the third time this month that you've slept out there. May I ask why?"

"It's so nice outside, so I figure I should." Leara lied. The truth was that she felt enclosed in that tiny apartment with Konan. Truth was that she was still having nightmares since the first night she fell asleep in that room. And after she had actually screamed in her sleep, waking up Konan and Karinai, she felt embarassed and took it upon herself to make sure it wouldn't happen again. However, she wasn't about to let someone else know that. No matter how kind any member acted. Especially Hidan.

Hidan had been one of the few Leara had grown attached too. Sure she got along with the other members as well, but she knew that there were rumors. She also knew the culprit was mainly Deidara. He was always trying to figure out where she had come from, what she had done to become a criminal, stuff like that. It was fine for the first few weeks, while the others also poked and prodded her, but now it was just annoying. _"Still, he has great taste in nail polish colour." _The blonde thought looking down at her manicured nails; an event which happened once a month with Herself, Deidara and konan. Hidan however, had asked no questions about her. He had done no prodding of her past and refused to pester her about untouchable subjects. He was usually pleasant around her, although there were a few times which they had a few arguments. And he actually attempted to handle Karinai when she was on missions, or when Konan didn't have time to watch her; taking her on short walks, reading to her, ect. It was all so sweet.

"Eggs are done." rang a voice, interrupting Leara's thoughts.

Leara grabbed 2 plates and Hidan Place the eggs on both. "Thanks."

Hidan shrugged, "No problem."

Karinai ran over, 3 pieces of toast perfectly balanced in her hands. "Mommy, it's 9. Can we go watch Scooby Doo?" she said placing 2 pieces of toast on her mother's plate and one on her own.

"Okay, let's go watch Scooby do." Leara said grabbing cutlery, her plate, and her coffee. She made her way towards the exit. Deidara and Sasori had ended their fighting; Sasori won and was eating the last bowl of the sugar sweet cereal, while Deidara was scowling and munching on the Organic O's. Konan had left the table and had most likely gone to her room. Kakuzu was still drinking his coffee and was now reading the newspaper. Hidan had just sat across from him. Zetsu was still in the corner.

"Bye Leara." Deidara called as the mother and daughter left.

"Bye Deidara." Leara responded as the 2 of them headed to their shared apartment.

"Bye karinai."

"Bye Deidara." Karinai waved.

Kakuzu flipped a page of the newspaper. "Gee Hidan, I don't remember you ever offering to make me breakfast."

Hidan took a swig of his coffee.

"Shut up kakuzu."

**XOXOXO Time Pass XOXOXO**

Konan entered the apartment just as Scooby Doo was ending.

"Where were you?I thought you had come back here." Leara inquired getting up from her spot in front of the television, collecting the dirty dishes and bringing them into the small kitchen which was only used for washing dishes and making tea.

"Had to do some work with Pein."

"Ah, I see."

"We have a meeting at 11."

Leara stretched her arms toward the ceiling. "Mkay."

**XOXOXO Time Pass XOXOXO**

The cloaked members all sat around a long table. Each of their faces were serious and drawn to the attention of their leader. If you had walked in you would not have believed that these were the same people who had been fighting over kitchen space just hours before.

Pein, who was sitting at the head of the table, stood up. "It is time for the missions to be handed out." he said very casually. Konan who had been sitting beside him handed out folders to each member. "There are 5 missions that are to be completed over the next few week. There is two to a team, with one team of three." The pierced man said, looking directly at Leara. His eyes beating into hers.

-Pein never had fully adjusted to Leara. Karinai sure, but for some reason he did not like Leara. The most likely reason for his disregard of her would have to be because of Konan always talking about her. 'Leara and I this' and "Me and Leara that.' It gave the Akatsuki leader a headache just thinking about it.-

"The teams are as follows." Pein said returning on task.

There was a shuffle of folders as every member opened them.

"Hidan and Kakuzu..."

"Ugh we're stuck looking for a jinjuriki again." Complained Hidan. Kakuzu gave him a glare, though he was also thinking the same thing his partner had just stated.

"Sasori and Deidara."

No comment was heard from them.

"Zetsu and Tobi."

"Preserving the bases natural wildlife." Zetu's white half read. "You mean were weeding the gardens? Why didn't you just put that down in the first place." His black half argued.

"Tobi will do his best!"

"Konan and I."

Konan looked at Pein and opened her mouth to say something, "Don't you mean-"

"And finally: Kisame, Itachi and Leara." Pein interrupted.

**CLIFF HANGER!- well not really working on the continuation right now!**


End file.
